Andy Carroll reveals he was sexually assaulted in 2021 as attacker jailed for three years

Former Premier League striker Andy Carroll has revealed he was sexually assaulted in 2021 by an acquaintance who was later convicted and sentenced to three years in prison. Carroll, 37, disclosed the attack in his new memoir, Owning It, published on Thursday, saying he hopes speaking out will help other survivors.

Carroll, who now plays for non-league club Dagenham and Redbridge, described the incident as one of the most traumatic experiences of his life and said he only decided to include it in the book “at the very last minute” after lengthy discussions with his girlfriend, Lou Teasdale.

“Something happened to me a few years ago that was so traumatic I only decided to include it in this book at the very last minute,” Carroll wrote. “I was sexually assaulted, there I said it. Scary to even think about and only a few people knew about it before now.”

Carroll explained that the assault occurred on an evening after he had played a game for Newcastle. His former partner had persuaded him to invite an acquaintance — described as a “celebrity mate” — to watch a boxing match and stay in the spare room while she was away. Carroll said the man had already given him “the creeps” and had “bombarded” him with text messages after obtaining his number.

After having a few drinks and feeling “light-headed”, Carroll went to bed, only to be woken by the man attempting to perform a sexual act on him. Carroll said he threw the man out of the house and struck him “as hard as he could” when he attempted to re-enter, before calling the police and breaking down in his children’s nanny’s arms.

The attacker initially denied the allegations but was ultimately charged with sexual offences, sentenced to three years in prison, placed on the National Sex Offender Register, and banned from entering the village where Carroll was living at the time.

Carroll described the court process as “humiliating and embarrassing and absolutely horrendous”, and said he never discussed the assault with his parents or his therapist. He did, however, tell Teasdale within weeks of meeting her.

“The trauma of what happened to me hasn’t gone away; I’m still coping with it every day,” Carroll added. “Scary to talk about but it’s made the person I am today as much as any of the good stuff. And if me talking about it helps just one person then it will have been worth it.”

Carroll, capped 9 times for England, spent the peak of his career at Newcastle United, Liverpool, and West Ham United before dropping into the lower leagues in recent years.