A WOMAN who said she was raped twice by a goalkeeper whose team had just won the FA Vase was asked why she had not left his hotel room, a court heard.

The complainant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, says she was attacked by Michael Emery, the reserve goalkeeper for Warrington Rylands who were celebrating their non-league cup final victory at Wembley Stadium at the Grove Hotel in Watford on May 22, 2021.

They had consensual sex and later, and unbeknown to her at the time, the 33-year-old allegedly took naked pictures of her which he shared with his teammates. With one image he asked: “Anyone want a go?”, St Albans Crown Court heard.

After that it is alleged Emery twice violently raped the woman, who is in her 30s.

He is standing trial all this week She was asked on Tuesday by his barrister Kate Blackwell KC: “You weren’t being held down?”

She replied :”No”.

Did you try and get out of bed? “No”

Did you try and push him off? “No because I was frightened.”

Ms Blackwell went on: “You had told him ‘No.’ He had physically hurt you. It was an extremely unpleasant experience and when it was over you turned over and went back to sleep. She replied: “Yes”

The defence barrister asked:”Why didn't you leave the bedroom?”

The woman replied: “I didn’t at that moment know what to do. I didn’t have the control over my logical thought processes.”

“Your instinct was to fall asleep?” ”Yes”

“You were relaxed enough to fall asleep. “ She replied “I was not relaxed. I was numb.”

Ms Blackwell said: “Had it crossed your mind to leave the bedroom. “ She replied: “I don’t know where I would have gone.”

“Could you have gone to reception and told them you were brutally raped in your bed?” She replied: “I could I suppose.”

In a police recorded interview played to the jury the woman said they had gone to his room where they had consensual penetrative sexual intercourse, which she described as ‘good’,albeit ‘transactional’ and ‘vanilla.’”

She said: “This guy Mikey Emery said he was the only player with a room on his own.

“He said I could have the other bed. I thought that’s good. I am sorted for the evening.

“He said it was a twin room. He seemed like a perfectly friendly chap. I kind of assumed he was a decent bloke. There was nothing flirty.

“Over the course of the evening I wasn’t drunk I probably had 6 or 7 of those bottles of Moretti from 5pm to 1am.”

She said: “We had sex consensually. It was fine. There was nothing weird or whatever.”

She said that on the way to the room he said he did not have a phone charger and that his phone was “on its arse.”

While she was asleep she said she thought he could have slipped out to go to the party in one of the other’s rooms.

She went on: “When he came back it was like something had changed. Like the look in his eyes. It was like, I don’t know, it was consistent with like someone had taken coke.

“He woke me up. I was like leave me alone.

“I don’t know how much time elapsed. I was lying on my back and he woke me up by biting me really hard on my inner thigh. His whole sort of presence had changed.

“It felt very threatening . He was like ‘let’s have sex.’ I said ‘No I don't want to I want to go back to sleep.’”

“He had sex with me despite the fact I did not want to .

“After that I went back to sleep and in my mind I was like I just need to go back to sleep. I was not sure how much time elapsed. I was on my front and he was trying to wake me up again by biting me. I thought if I pretended to be asleep he might stop and it would be over at that point.

“But he didn’t stop he did it again and while he was doing it he was still biting me in a number of place.”

After the consensual sex, the woman went to sleep in one of the two single beds in the room with Michael Emery in the other.

Prosecutor Charlotte Newell KC : “While she was asleep Mr Emery demonstrated his total disregard for the autonomy and consent of the woman he had intercourse with by taking photographs of her naked without her knowledge and distributing them, shortly before 4am, amongst his team mates in two group chats comprising in the region of 70 participants.”

The prosecutor said: “She knew nothing of this and would never have consented to such pictures being taken.”

Emery of Signet Square, Coventry denies two charges of rape and one of disclosing private sexual photographs or films without consent with intent to cause distress.

Case proceeding