'One of accusers tried to pick me up'

Strife-torn Leicester City will probably bring in private investigators to look into the background of its players' accusers.

The club acted yesterday after claims that the three women looked and behaved like escort girls, and propositioned other Britons for sex.

It was also pointed out that it costs more to stay for two nights at the Hyatt Hotel in La Manga than the monthly rent on the dingy properties in Germany where two of the women live.

British property developer Edward O'Hara, who is on holiday in La Manga with his wife Maureen, said he was approached by one of the women while he was alone in a bar at the Hyatt a few hours before the alleged rape.

Mr O'Hara, 58, from Brockley, South-East London, said the woman spoke to him at around 6pm.

'She was sitting next to me at the bar drinking vodka and tonic. When she asked the barman for matches I pushed a lighter over for her to use and she immediately asked if I was staying for business or pleasure. She then said,"Would you like to do some business with me?"

'I jokingly said I couldn't afford her and she laughed.'

He said that he had later seen her in the bar with two of her friends.

Mr O'Hara said that when the 'rape' story broke he suspected the three women he had seen were the same ones making the accusations against the Leicester players.

Pictures showing them in the distinctive clothing they wore that night confirmed his view and he contacted the football club to report his encounter.

Another Briton, David Johnson, aged 38, from Evesham, Worcestershire, was part of a team preparing for a motorcycle event at nearby Cartagena last weekend.

He and his colleagues had been approached at their hotel in the port city by three black women a day before the incident with the footballers.

He was confident it was the same trio.

'They were touting their trade but we were not interested,' he said.

'When we showed we had no interest they said they were going off to La Manga and later we heard this happened with the footballers.'

A Spanish businessman said that on the Saturday night before the Leicester incident he believes he saw the women dining with seven men at Luigi's Italian restaurant, where they later met the Leicester players. Company director Pepe Martinez, 34, said: 'They looked like escorts to me - provocatively dressed, two in tight jeans, one in a skirt and all wearing high heels.

'I certainly got the impression - and so did the two people I was with - that they were prostitutes.'

Two of the women, both Kenyans, live in downmarket areas of Cologne. The third woman is from Malawi.

One of the Kenyans - a 38-year-old - lives with a Ford car- plant worker in a £300-a-month council flat.

Neighbours claim she dresses 'flamboyantly' and is hardly ever at home. She met her German husband while he was on holiday in Africa five years ago.

A neighbour said: 'She is often away from home - we don't see her for weeks at a time.'

Another of the women - aged 36 - is registered at a small apartment building in a blue-collar district five miles from the city centre but neighbours claim they have not seen her since last year.