UK police arrest second man in soccer rape probe

By Michael Holden

LONDON (Reuters) - British police, probing claims by a 17-year-old girl that she was gang-raped in a London hotel by a group of men including a number of top soccer players, said they had arrested a second man on Thursday.

"A 27-year-old man attended a central London police station by appointment where he was arrested today in connection with an allegation of rape and sexual assault made by a 17-year-old female," police said in a statement.

Police later said he had been freed on bail and ordered to return to a police station in central London later this month. A police spokeswoman said she could not comment on whether or not he was a professional soccer player.

The teenager's allegation that she was gang-raped by up to eight top soccer players in the luxury Grosvenor House hotel on September 27 has threatened to rock English football with its worst ever scandal involving player behaviour off the pitch.

It is one of several recent incidents to have tarnished the image of the prestigious English premier league, which is watched by millions world-wide on television each week, and has raised questions about the behaviour of young men who are paid millions of pounds and adulated like pop stars.

On Wednesday, police arrested party organiser Nicholas Meikle, 29, in connection with the teenager's allegation of rape. His lawyer denied the allegation.

"My client denies the allegation in its entirety and encourages the continued police investigation into this matter which he hopes will reveal the allegations against him to be groundless," his lawyer Mark Bowen told Reuters after Meikle was released on police bail.

Police confirmed last week that detectives from a special sexual offences unit launched an investigation after the girl came forward and said she was raped and sexually assaulted.

Other allegations of sexual assault, drugs and drunkenness involving top soccer players have recently been splashed across the front pages of the country's newspapers.

On Wednesday the England national team's players provoked widespread criticism after threatening to boycott the decisive Euro 2004 qualifier against Turkey on Saturday, after Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand was omitted from the squad for having failed to take a mandatory drugs test.

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