Angel Torres: Central Coast Mariners player takes stand in sexual assault case
A professional A-League soccer player has taken the stand in his sexual assault trial on the Central Coast, fiercely denying the allegations.
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A professional A-League soccer player has taken the stand in his sexual assault trial on the Central Coast, fiercely denying the allegations.
Colombian international Central Coast Mariners player Angel Torres, 24, is on trial at Gosford District Court for five charges, including aggravated sexual intercourse without consent, sexual intercourse without consent, intimidation, and two counts of common assault.
Torres, a father-of-one who is also the youngest child of his family with nine siblings, took to the stand on Tuesday morning after the Crown prosecution finished their case.
Torres, through his interpreter, told the court about the events that transpired last year at a nightclub on the Central Coast last year.
The court heard Torres went to Sirens nightclub with four other Central Coast Mariners players.
“We went upstairs next to the sofa, had some beers. After that I made contact with a girl,” Torres said.
“We made eye contact, we talked through a translator, we danced, we kissed, and we talked.”
Torres told the court the woman said he smelled good, and jokingly, he responded that she could smell his cologne in his car.
He told the court they continued dancing in the nightclub and asked if she wanted to come back to his house in Terrigal, to which she eventually said yes.
Torres said he left the club with the woman and then took her back to his house.
The court heard Torres and the woman were kissing on his bed, when Torres asked the woman if she was going to sleep with her clothes on.
Torres told the court the woman took her pants off and that he then started to intimately kiss the woman’s genitalia and also inserted his fingers into her genitalia.
During a cross examination, Torres was asked by the Crown prosecutor Andrew Lynch if he used the woman’s belt that she was wearing, to loop around her neck. He denied the allegations.
He was then asked by the Mr Lynch if he pushed the woman’s head towards his penis, and also denied the allegation.
He was also asked if he inserted his fingers into the woman’s vagina on a second occasion, which he disagreed.
Torres also told the court that he did not pin the woman to the floor, and that a conversation never took place where he allegedly said the woman would ruin his career.
“We didn’t have such a conversation, I never said anything like that,” Torres said.
The court heard Torres followed the woman after she exited the home as he worried about her safety.
CCTV footage played to the court showed Torres speaking with the woman on the footpath in the early hours of the morning after the alleged incident.
The Crown said Torres was seen waving his arms when he was talking to the girl and asked if he was panicked because he was worried about the ramifications the incident would have on his career.
“I was never worried about my career ... what I was trying to do was help her and talk to her about it”
The crown also asked Torres if he was angry because she had rejected him, to which Torres replied he disagreed.
The trial continues.
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Originally published as Angel Torres: Central Coast Mariners player takes stand in sexual assault case
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