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A-League soccer star Angel Torres has told a jury he never raped a young woman after taking her home from a nightclub.
The Mariners striker mentioned that when the woman was in his room and decided she wanted to leave instead of having sex, he simply asked if he had upset her in any way, and then she left.
Speaking through a Spanish interpreter today, Colombian-born Torres explained to a Gosford District Court jury that he had played professional soccer in Portugal and Malta before coming to Australia in 2023 to join the Mariners.
Crown prosecutor Andrew Lynch said the woman alleged they had been kissing in Torres’ bedroom when he took her belt and wrapped it around her neck.
Torres denied this ever happened.
Lynch said when the woman told Torres she wanted to leave, he said “what, you don’t want?”.
The woman alleged Torres digitally penetrated her and did not stop even though she was screaming “no, no, no”.
The prosecutor stated that Torres laughed at the woman when she asked where her pants were, then grabbed her and pinned her against the wall for 45 seconds.
Lynch said Torres told the woman she was crazy and sick in the head when she started crying.
When the woman managed to get outside, she sent a text at 2.44am to a friend saying “I need help”.
Torres allegedly followed the woman and stood over her as she sat on the road before putting his hands on her, stopping her from getting up.
The woman started screaming “help, help”, and Torres told her “you’re going to ruin my career”.
She claimed she told Torres “just let me go, I won’t say anything”.
The woman texted her friends and they found her hiding in bushland, the court was told.
Torres told the jury he and the woman had been in the bedroom kissing and touching when he consensually digitally penetrated her before he stood up and asked her if she wanted to have sex.
He said she told him she just wanted to go home and as she was getting dressed, he asked her if something had happened.
Torres said the woman repeated she wanted to go home without explanation and then she left.
He denied all the woman’s accusations, saying he never laughed at her, grabbed her, called her crazy or yelled at her.
Torres said he followed the woman outside because he was worried about her being outside at nearly 3am.
“For me, in my country, this is something very dangerous to do,” he said.
Torres told the jury at one stage the woman sat down outside and screamed for help.
“I said ‘what’s happening? I’m not doing anything to you’.”
Torres has also pleaded not guilty to an alternative count of sexual intercourse without consent, one count of intimidation intending to cause fear, and two counts of assault.
The trial before Judge Tanya Bright continues.