Ex-Sunderland player Cabral's alleged rape victim denies dressing to attract footballers

A woman at the centre of a rape trial involving former Sunderland AFC midfielder Cabral has denied deliberately dressing in a way to attract footballers during a night out.
Cabral. Picture by PA wire.Cabral. Picture by PA wire.
Cabral. Picture by PA wire.

The woman sobbed in court as she was accused by a barrister that she had developed a mutual attraction for Cabral, 27, in a Newcastle nightclub and went back to his apartment for an after party knowing they would have sex.

Cabral, real name Adilson Traveres Varela. denies two charges of rape in the bedroom of his apartment. He insisted the woman got upset with him after she asked him for sex and had gone to his room after dancing with her in clubs.

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Under cross examination at Hull Crown Court, defence barrister Kitty Taylor said: “Did you want to go out that night to look sexually and attractive to people in that nightclub?” The woman said: “No!”

Ms Taylor put it to the woman: “There was an expectation that you would go to bed with him. There was a build up of flirtations. It was obvious it what going to happen.” The woman replied: “No.”

The woman accepted Cabral drove three women along with his two pals to his flat in his white Mercedes and they went in, being asked to remove their shoes to protect his carpet. She said all three women had gone to the bathroom to brush their hair and put lipstick on were making video Snapchat clips.

Ms Taylor asked the woman why one had exposed her knickers and another had got in the shower “doing sexy dancing and touching her body.” The woman said “She was pretending to wash herself.”

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She said “He (Varela) came knocking on the door after 10 minutes. He told us to keep the noise down.”

The woman said she came out of the room into the living room and accepted she got under a blanket, but denied Ms Taylor's suggestion she had made up that her feet were cold so she could get in his bedroom for socks.

The woman broke down in tears after Ms Taylor put it to her: “You went on his bedroom to sit on his bed to have some sexual relationship with him. There is no explanation why you went in there.”

The woman sobbed in the witness box behind a screen for 30 seconds watch by her family in the public gallery.

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Judge Jeremy Richardson QC said; “Take a deep breath, pause and compose yourself.” She continued to weep and the judge said: “Take a glass of water.”

Ms Taylor continued: “I suggest it was totally unnecessary. I suggest you told the police that so you could explain why you went in the bedroom”

The woman admitted she must have squeezed past him to get into the room. The woman insisted she was raped saying Cabral was persistent and aggressive pushing her back on to the bed.

Ms Taylor said the woman could not account for how Cabral took his clothes off in her police interview. The woman admitted she could not remember because she was in shock.

The trial continues.