Girls come back to our hotels for sex, says footballer

Titus Bramble, the Premier League footballer, told his brother’s rape trial yesterday that girls who went to footballers’ hotels after nights out were there for sexual intercourse.

The Sunderland defender was giving evidence at the trial of Tesfaye Bramble, 30, at Leeds Crown Court. Tesfaye Bramble, who played for Southend United, Stockport County and Stevenage before his career was ended by injury, is accused of raping a

19 year-old in the Vermont Hotel, Newcastle, following a night out.

Titus Bramble told the court that his party went to a bar in Newcastle called Madame Koo’s after a Sunderland match on Sept 22 last year. He said he returned to the hotel and found his brother, two friends and the alleged victim in one of the rooms he had booked.

Mr Bramble was asked by Penelope Moreland, prosecuting, whether he assumed the woman had gone back to the hotel for intercourse. The footballer said: “Yes.”

He said he had been going out in Newcastle for years and “nearly every time a girl came back to the hotel it was for sex”.

He admitted he was wrong to assume that any woman who came back to a hotel with footballers was there for sex. “People do make assumptions. I’m no different,” said Mr Bramble. “I shouldn’t, but I do.”

He also agreed that he had a heated discussion with the alleged victim in which he defended footballers when she was generalising about their arrogance.
The teenager said she went to the hotel and chatted to the Bramble brothers and their party before she fell asleep. She woke to find a large, black man having sex with her.
Tesfaye Bramble told the court he got into bed with the woman, who was “partially conscious”. Asked why he got into the bed, Mr Bramble said: “I basically got into bed and tried my luck.”
He said he engaged in sexual activity with the woman and she responded by kissing him. They had intercourse and Mr Bramble said he was surprised when the woman suddenly got up and left.
Mr Bramble, of Ipswich, denies rape.
The trial continues.