Sunderland footballer Jack Diamond cleared of raping woman he met on Tinder
8 January 2024, 16:24 | Updated: 8 January 2024, 16:25
Sunderland footballer Jack Diamond has been found not guilty of raping a woman with whom he was "friends with benefits".
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Diamond, 23, a winger with the Championship club, had denied raping and sexually assaulting the woman at his home in Fatfield, Washington, on May 7 last year.
He claimed all sexual contact had been consensual, and his lawyer said he had endured a "nightmare" over the past eighteen months.
Newcastle Crown Court heard the two had had a sexual relationship since they matched on the dating app Tinder in 2019.
The two had an on-off relationship which was mostly sexual.
Read more: Footballer, 25, charged with rape of woman and is set to appear in court next month
The unnamed woman went to his house "for a cuddle" on May 7. She claimed that he had forced himself on her during this encounter.
Diamond said that the encounter was consensual, and that he had stopped touching her when she asked him to.
His lawyers said that the woman had developed romantic feelings for the footballer and was upset that he didn't want to make the relationship more serious.
Eleanor Laws KC said that Diamond had been suspended by Sunderland and had a loan spell with Lincoln City cancelled after the accusation.
The jury took about 15 minutes to reach its decision.
In her closing speech, Ms Laws, defending Diamond, said he was "not the entitled, arrogant footballer who thought the world owed him everything, but a 19-year-old man (when he first met the complainant) who made mistakes."
She told jurors: "He is not on trial for being immature, he is not on trial for making mistakes, he is not on trial for misreading the signals about whether he had hurt someone."
