International footballer raped woman in a toilet after Leeds night
An international football player raped a woman in the toilet of a Leeds flat after ignoring her pleas for him to stop.
Ras Diamond Jnr was found guilty after a trial at Leeds Crown Court.
The 27-year-old, who has played for the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean and for Selby Town FC, Harrogate Railway FC and Yorkshire Amateur AFC, was jailed this week.
In an impact statement penned by the victim, and read out to the court by prosecutor Catherine Duffy, the woman said she found being cross-examined during the trial “traumatising”.
She added: “I have had a lot of nightmares from day one. I would have to re-live the experience of him doing this to me.
“I’m reluctant to even smile at someone in the street for fear of giving the wrong impression.”
Diamond Jnr, of Echo Central Two residential complex in Leeds city centre, had been out socialising in June last year and had met the woman among others in a bar on Greek Street.
They all went to several bars and clubs before choosing to get an Uber back to a flat in the Hyde Park area.
When in the flat, the woman went to the toilet but was followed by Diamond Jnr. There he took her underwear down and his own.
The jury was told that the woman “made it clear” that she did not want sex.
He ignored her pleas and told her it would be okay. The victim told the court that Diamond Jnr as “forceful and powerful”.
The jury unanimously found him guilty of rape and assault by penetration during his trial in December last year.
The court was told that Diamond Jnr had travelled from the Turks and Caicos Islands in 2016 for a better life and has a young daughter in Leeds.
Judge Tahir Khan KC jailed him for six years and put him on the sex offender register for life.