Manchester City striker Robinho was arrested yesterday over allegations of sexual assault involving an 18-year-old university student. The incident allegedly occurred on January 14, in a nightclub in Leeds. After being brought in by the police (he seems to have turned himself in by prearrangement) Robinho was questioned, gave a DNA sample, and is now out on bail pending further investigation. He’s issued a statement through a spokesperson “strenuously denying” any wrongdoing.
It’s impossible to piece together much more than that from the information available in the media. According to the Telegraph,
Police had hoped to question the former Real Madrid player after City’s training camp in Tenerife earlier this month.
But they were forced to wait after he flew back to Brazil for “family reasons”, thought to be his 25th birthday party. Manager Mark Hughes promised to fine the player over the episode.
Which suggests a number of contradictory interpretations: that Robinho fled the country over the investigation, that police don’t have enough evidence to charge him (otherwise why would they tentatively hope to schedule a questioning after Tenerife rather than just grabbing him Harry Redknapp-style?), and so on.
But none of this is remotely verifiable. At the moment the whole ugly story is in the category of an over-sensationalized mystery. I’m not sure what else we can do but keep an eye on the headlines, and hope the truth comes out.
UPDATE: Sources close to Robinho are denying that he gave a DNA sample and that he’s “out on bail.” See here for details.
Read More: Annals of Crime, Manchester City, Robinho
by Brian Phillips · January 28, 2009
I love how the Bristish police were waiting for him to come in for questioning. (And he skipped off to Brazil for “personal reasons”.) American cops would have grabbed his ass, post haste, and not been too gentle about it …
The handling of the arrest seems to suggest a weak case (that’s a big “seems”, obviously) and I wouldn’t be shocked if we never heard anything more about this.
Still, what’s incredible to me is that Robinho has known for two weeks that he was being investigated for sexual assault, and yet he’s continued to complain to reporters about how unfair it would be if Man City docked his wages for skipping back to Brazil for his birthday party.
Manchester City are rapidly turning into a very special episode of The Hurricanes, featuring guest director Paul Verhoeven.
Hi, long time reader first time commenter.
Regarding the Police treatment of Robinho, and the apparently lethargy of their reaction to the claims being made; what you have to remember is Robinho is a rich man and a famous man. As such he is better than you or I. To just go around and arrest people of his ilk willy nilly is frankly very rude indeed.
I read out the story and conclude that police had not done the good job. I think affective party hire some investigation agency they sort out all the things and make help to police also for this case