Sunderland footballer Jack Diamond tells court he was trying 'to comfort' alleged rape victim

A footballer accused of raping a woman has told a court he was trying to “comfort her” after thinking she was “in a mood” about him rejecting her advances.

Sunderland winger Jack Diamond, 23, denies raping and sexually assaulting the woman after inviting her to his home in Fatfield, Washington, Sunderland, in May 2022.

Prosecutors claim Diamond forced himself on the complainant after agreeing, before she visited, that “nothing more than cuddling would happen”.

Newcastle Crown Court jurors have heard the pair became “friends with benefits” after meeting on a dating app, but the woman said she had not had sex with Diamond since going on medication in March 2022 which could cause foetal abnormalities.

Giving evidence on Thursday, Diamond said the pair had sex “pretty much every time” they saw each other, but that he did not want anything more serious as he had just come out of a four-year relationship when they first met.

He told the court that on the night of the alleged assaults, he had drunk “about four or five pints” with friends and invited the woman over to “relax and cuddle”.

He said he hoped that sexual activity might happen but that “it wasn’t at the forefront of my mind”.

Diamond said the woman got into bed with him and there was some sexual activity, but when she tried to initiate sex, he said: “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

The defendant told the court the woman turned away from him so he started to touch her bottom and legs “just to almost comfort her because I thought she was getting in a mood”.

Diamond said when he put his hand inside her thigh the woman pushed his hand away and said “no”.

He told jurors the two of them then started kissing before the complainant said: “I think the moment’s gone.”

Diamond said he “wasn’t really that fussed” and thought the woman was “in a huff”.

He told the court he went to the toilet and got back into bed before the woman got up and said she was going to leave.

Diamond said the complainant asked if he wanted her to lock the door and post the keys through the letterbox, and he replied: “Yeah, that’s fine.”

The defendant said: “I think she was, looking back on it now … I think that was her showing some kind of, ‘I want some attention off you’.”

Asked by his barrister, Eleanor Laws KC, if he had done anything to the complainant without consent, he said: “Absolutely not.”

Diamond added: “I would never, ever think of doing that. I have got sisters I care about, a lot of women I care about in my life. I would never, ever.”

Asked if he was regretful about anything he did, Diamond said: “I think just my whole attitude and immaturity towards the relationship.”

He told the court: “I think maybe I was a bit naive to think that you can have just a casual, sexual relationship without one of the partners catching feelings.”

Jurors previously heard the complainant told police she messaged her friends for help following the alleged assaults after fearing that Diamond was contacting his housemate, and fellow Sunderland player, Anthony Patterson, “who had previously raised the possibility of a threesome”.

Giving evidence, Mr Patterson said he and Diamond had both met the woman separately on a dating app, but had never even joked about having a threesome.

Diamond denies both charges and the trial continues.