Soccer star 'slept with sex case woman'

A soccer star today revealed he had sex with one of the women who claimed they were sexually assaulted by three Leicester City players on the night of the alleged attack.

Former Sheffield United player Ville Lehtinen said he recognised a woman photographed with her leg wrapped around accused Leicester player Frank Sinclair as the same girl who had flirted with him in a bar before taking him to her La Manga hotel room for sex.

The 25-year-old Finn said that after they had spent an hour together in bed, the woman "put back on her mini-skirt and make-up and went back to the bar looking for footballers".

Lehtinen - who now plays in Norway - said he was shocked when he recognised the woman in a newspaper photograph and has phoned the Spanish authorities to say he is prepared to give evidence on behalf of the Leicester players.

Sinclair, 32, Paul Dickov - the 31-year-old club captain - and 29-year-old Keith Gillespie all vehemently deny charges that they sexually assaulted one of the three African-born women. The three are expected to hear today whether Spanish judge Jacinto Areste will order them to remain in jail in Cartagena - where they have already spent a week in prison - or whether they will be granted bail.

Lehtinen said that the woman flirted with him in the bar with two of her friends. He told the Daily Mirror: "They were after men and it was clear it was going to end in bed."

Afterwards, as she dressed and was preparing to leave the room, Lehtinen said: "I was thinking 'She's going off again to get another guy. It's a manhunt'."

He added: "I could have remained silent, but there are three guys who could be sitting in jail for 12 years. I thought it best to step forward."

Describing the behaviour of the three women at the La Manga resort he said: "They were dressed very sexily and I felt they were out for something that night. They were diva types... they thought they were very special.

"When the Leicester players walked in I told the women they were a Premiership team. They said 'Why don't you ask the boys over?' I said they were probably married. But they said 'What the hell? What does marriage mean? It doesn't mean anything!'." He said the women soon began making eye-contact with the Leicester players and Frank Sinclair came over to the women, had a brief chat and then returned to his teammates.

After that Lehtinen and one of the women left to go to her room in the Hyatt Hotel. He told the Mirror: "I assumed she was single, at least that was how she acted. I didn't have anything against it because she was attractive and she'd picked me up. I thought I was very lucky. She was charming with very good manners."

In the hotel room the couple had sex, using a condom. The player said: "In a way she was giving an ice-cold performance. She knew what she was doing. But that was good because she wasn't nervous, nor was I."

Afterwards the woman said she would rejoin her friends in the hotel bar. She asked him if he wanted to join them but he said it was late and he needed to sleep.

He said: "We went to the lobby where I ordered a taxi and kissed her goodbye. She'd put a little more makeup on and I thought 'She's off to get another guy'."

But he says he did not pay for sex and dismissed claims the three women may have been prostitutes.

However, one of the women was once charged with being a vice madam.

The married mother-ofthree was accused of procuring prostitutes after two teenage girls claimed she had smuggled them into Europe and sold them as sex slaves.

The woman appeared before magistrates five years ago in Malawi, but the case was thrown out.