Carroll opens up on sex assault hell after his attacker is jailed for three years

Ex-Premier League footballer Andy Carroll has revealed that he was sexually assaulted in 2021 by a man who was subsequently jailed for three years. Carroll, 37, recounted the 'traumatic' experience in his new book, Owning It, which was released on Thursday.

The former England international admitted that he 'can't forget' the attack but was unsure whether to include it in the book until 'the last minute', having spoken to girlfriend Lou Teasdale, 42, about sharing his story. But Carroll, who now plays for non-league club Dagenham and Redbridge, hopes that telling his story will help others.

"Other things I'd quite like to forget but can't," the striker wrote. "Something happened to me a few years ago that was so traumatic I only decided to include it in this book at the very last minute.

"I was sexually assaulted, there I said it. Scary to even think about and only a few people knew about it before now. Me and Lou spent a lot of time discussing whether to mention it in this book or not. I avoided my publisher for so long that they probably suspected I got cold feet."

"Scary to talk about but it's made the person I am today as much as any of the good stuff. And if me talking about it helps just one person then good it will have been worth it."

Carroll went on to explain that the incident happened on the evening after he'd played a game for hometown club Newcastle 'down south'. His former partner had convinced him to invite a 'celebrity mate' round to watch a boxing match and stay in the spare room while she was away. Carroll knew the man, who gave him 'the creeps' and 'bombarded' him with text messages after getting his number.

The player recalled feeling 'light-headed' after having 'a few drinks' before heading to bed. Carroll then described being woken up to the man trying to attack him underneath the bedsheets.

Carroll says that he subsequently threw him out of the house and smacked the perpetrator 'as hard as he could' when he tried to re-enter. Carroll then called the police and was 'sobbing in (his children's) nanny's arms'.

The attacker denied the allegations but was ultimately charged with sexual offences by the police and sentenced to three years in prison. He was also placed on the National Sex Offender Register and banned from entering the village where Carroll lived at the time.

Carroll described the ordeal as 'humiliating and embarrassing and absolutely horrendous', and he never spoke about it with his parents or therapist. He did, though, feel comfortable telling Lou within a couple of weeks of meeting her and now wants to 'own' what happened.

"The trauma of what happened to me hasn't gone away; I'm still coping with it every day," Carroll added. "If you keep something hidden for years, you obviously don't want people to know about it; but then I started thinking about the incident in relation to the title of this book.

"By owning what happened to me rather than trying to bury it, perhaps I can have some control over it, rather than it controlling me."