Oyinlola Awonuga Balogun (The New Diplomat’s Entertainment, Fashion and Sports Desk)
A former Arsenal academy player Tyrell Robinson has been jailed for having sex with an underage girl and taking a photograph of his friend in bed with two naked 14-year-olds the same night, reports Mirror.
The ex-Bradford City winger was almost 20 when three 14-year-old girls joined him and his friend Korie Berman at his flat in Bradford in August 2018.
The player, since sacked by the club, knew the girls’ ages and had discussed with Berman the fact they were underage, Bradford Crown Court heard.
Robinson, now 23, was jailed for three-and-a-half years after he admitted sexual activity with a child, making an indecent image of a child and distributing an indecent image of a child.
The indecency charges related to taking a photo on his mobile phone of Berman with two drunk, naked 14-year-olds in the footballer’s spare room.
Robinson then shared the photo with Berman, along with emojis indicating sexual activity and the police, the court heard.
Berman, then aged 19 and now 22, was jailed for six years after admitting five counts of sexual activity with a child.
Gillian Batts, prosecuting, said Robinson had met the victims at a social event he had been told not to attend by club bosses.
Bradford City had given all players safe-guarding training regarding young and vulnerable people, including not to give under-18s their contact details, the court heard.
But Robinson did make contact with two of the girls after the meeting and was aware they were underage.
He messaged one saying: “I think you are stunning but your age is a killer.”
Berman at one point messaged his friend to say: “Bro why dat ting from your ends so sexy?”
The footballer replied telling him she was only 14 and to “calm down” – something the sentencing judge called “nothing short of hypocrisy” given what was to happen later.
The court heard Berman looked up a BBC website article titled “What happens if you have underage sex” and took a screenshot of it.
The court heard Berman had sex with one of the 14-year-olds on two separate occasions at Robinson’s flat – when the footballer was away – and gave his victim nitrous oxide from a balloon on the second occasion, which made her light-headed.
On August 13 2018, three girls who had already drunk vodka came to the player’s flat where Berman and Robinson gave them more alcohol shots.
The two girls Robinson photographed with Berman had little or no recollection of what he did with them, the court heard, but he told police they had sex.
They were both violently ill later.
Robinson took his victim to his bedroom and had sex with her, stopping when one of the other girls came in to tell his victim that her mother was one the phone.
In the following days Berman tried to save Robinson, telling the mother of one of the victims that the footballer would lose his job.
Berman was arrested at the player’s flat while Robinson was arrested at Macclesfield Town’s ground, where he told police: “Is this about my mate, I have been worried about him?”
Marie Spenwyn, for Robinson who is from South Ockendon, Essex, said: “He has let his family down and everyone who believed in him, from the Arsenal academy to Bradford Football Club.”
She said his football background, including being away from home at an academy from a young age, lead his “maturity to not be what it should be”.
He has since become a father and has a partner who is standing by him, she said.
Andrew Dallas, for Berman, who is from Thurrock, Essex, said his behaviour was a “serious aberration” by someone who was still a teenager at the time.
Judge Richard Mansell QC said an adult who knew the victims described them as “immature, typical 14-year-olds who were sexually inexperienced, naive and vulnerable to grooming and sexual exploitation by adult men”.
The offences had caused all three girls and their families considerable harm, the judge said.
Both men will be on the sex offenders’ register for life.
