Footballers let off in rape case

English Premiership soccer players Carlton Cole Chelsea and Titus Bramble Newcastle have been cleared of rape charges, The Sun newspaper reported today. The two had been accused of raping a 17-year-old in a London hotel last September but legal sources said the case had collapsed because police admitted they could not disprove the players8217; arguments the girl had consented to sex.

Bramble and Cole, currently on loan to Charlton, party organiser Nicholas Meikle and engineer Jason Edwards were arrested. A legal source close to the case said the players treated the impressionable teenager, who had just left convent school, as 8216;8216;just a piece of meat to boost their egos8217;8217;.

The source, however, added: 8216;8216;What happened to her was incredibly sordid.8217;8217;

But the legal source said: 8216;8216;They all insisted she had consented to having sex with them. And it was impossible to prove otherwise. It is very difficult to get corroborating evidence in such cases.8217;8217;