Rape case footballers named

Two Premiership footballers arrested over the alleged gang-rape of a 17-year-old girl can be named today after the Attorney-General lifted a ban on revealing their identities.

Newcastle United defender Titus Bramble, 22, and Chelsea striker Carlton Cole, 19, are the players involved in a police investigation into the alleged late-night attack at a London hotel.

The pair were first detained for questioning last month but their names could not be disclosed after newspapers were threatened with legal action.

Attorney- General Lord Goldsmith took the extraordinary step of intervening to demand undertakings from the media that they would not identify the men, saying it could jeopardise any future prosecution.

But yesterday Lord Goldsmith's office confirmed that, following the conclusion of 'identification procedures', the ban had been lifted.

The Daily Mail can reveal that Scotland Yard will send a file on the case to the Crown Prosecution Service within a fortnight.

It is believed detectives will not recommend whether charges should be brought, instead leaving the decision to the CPS.

Legal sources say it is far from certain whether Bramble and Cole, along with two other men suspected of taking part in the alleged assault, will be prosecuted.

Bramble, who earns around £25,000 a week, and Cole, who is on about £10,000 a week while on loan from Chelsea to fellow Premiership club Charlton Athletic, were first arrested on October 10 after arriving by appointment at separate London police stations.

The pair were interviewed under caution and asked to give DNA samples before being released on police bail.

Shortly afterwards, Newcastle and England star Kieron Dyer issued a statement denying any involvement in the alleged incident at the five-star Grosvenor House Hotel on September 27.

The alleged victim admits she consented to sex with one man but claims she was then attacked by a group of others. Two other men, party organiser Nicholas Meikle, 29, and engineer Jason Edwards, 27, have also been arrested in connection with the alleged incident.

Meikle, a nightclub PR from Catford, South-East London, insists the girl consented to sex with him. He claims she then agreed to have intercourse with one of his friends and two Premiership footballers, and that at no stage was she raped.

At the weekend Bramble and Cole's lawyer Graham Shear said: 'They have always maintained they have done nothing unlawful.'

After the case hit the headlines it was claimed that apparentlywilling young girls were regularly shared out for sex by footballers in a practice known as 'roasting'.

In a separate case, Leeds United midfielder Jody Morris, 24, was last week charged with raping a 20-year-old woman in West Yorkshire.