LONDON – Sexual assault charges brought against three British footballers are likely to be dropped after forensic tests showed no contact between the men and the three women who made the allegations, it was reported Wednesday.

Lawyers acting for Paul Dickov, 31, Frank Sinclair, 32, and Keith Gillespie, 29, who play for Leicester City, have applied to the authorities to have the charges dropped, the Guardian newspaper reported in London.

Underwear and other personal items belonging to the three women were tested after they alleged that the players had attacked them in La Manga, southern Spain, where they were on a training break organised by the club.

The Leicester City chief executive, Tim Davies, said the tests vindicated the players’ claims of innocence.

“There is nothing that links our players with the girls,” he said.

Jacinto Areste, the judge who released the three players on bail for a total of EUR 288,000 in March, after they had spent nine days in jail, is expected to review the test results within the next three weeks.

Davies said: “He needs to sit down and consider everything and decide how he is going to proceed. The judge will decide in accordance with the evidence. You would expect that it would be good news.”

The incident left the impression of a game ceaselessly mired in scandal.

The club’s manager, Micky Adams, organised the visit to help the squad stay in the Premiership, but they were relegated last month.

The three women, who live in Germany, told the Spanish police that they were assaulted after going back to one of the players’ rooms after a night drinking in hotel bars.

They told the court in Cartagena that they were businesswomen, but a newspaper has claimed that they are prostitutes. The women deny the claim, but the club say that it will be part of the formal application to have the charges dismissed.

Earlier this month the News of the World newspaper in Britain reported that one of the women, Ruth Lorenco, had offered an undercover reporter sex with her and the other two – Beatrice Wanjiro and Martha Wilbert – for GBP 700.

The lawyers will ask for the five others initially arrested to be formally cleared. Matt Elliott, Lilian Nalis and James Scowcroft were released on bail pending further inquiries; Nikos Dabizas and Danny Coyne were also freed, and Steffen Freund was released without charge.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news