Bez Lubala trial: "I didn't expect sex," says Blackpool FC footballer accused of rape after inviting woman for 'Netflix and Chill'

Blackpool FC forward Beryly 'Bez' Lubala, 24, said the case against him was a complete lie.

He invited the woman, then aged 18, to visit him at his home to watch Netflix, a court heard.

She arrived at his home in Horsham, West Sussex, at around 2222 in the evening on Friday, September 13, 2019.

Later, she recorded two harrowing voice notes as she drove home from the house in Horsham, West Sussex.

They were played to the striker on his second day in the witness box.

Her mother, sitting in the public gallery, covered her ears as the woman was heard sobbing into her phone.

In two voice notes, she described being attacked by the player.

Richard Hearnden for the prosecution asked him: "Do you have an idea how she got in that state?"

Lubala, who lives in Lytham, told a jury in Brighton: "I'm devastated to hear her like that.

"When we were together she was fine.

"I've never made any human feel like that.

"The person she's talking about is not me.

"It's a complete lie."

The player joined Crawley Town FC in June and the court heard he had sex with the woman on the only two occasions they had met before the incident.

"You expected her to have sex with you on the 13th and when she said 'no' you you forced her," Mr Hearnden told the player.

He replied: "I disagree.

"I didn't expect sex the first time.

"The second time, I didn't think she was going to stay.

"I never talked to her about sex."

The jury has been shown a Snapchat selfie taken by the woman, now 20, in his bedroom which the player said was taken after they had sex while he was in the bathroom.

Mr Hearnden told him: "You say it's relevant because she doesn't look upset.

"She doesn't look like someone who has just been raped, does she?"

"No one has been raped in that photograph," the player said.

"I agree, because she took it before you and she had sex," Mr Hearnden said.

"While you were in the bathroom, she's done her hair, posed and put the lights on and taken the photo?"

"The time I was with her, the lights were off," the player said.

Mr Hearnden accused the player of changing his story to say the lights were off.

"I'm not here inventing things," the player said.

Mr Hearnden challenged the player on his recollection of the incident.

"The reason you can't remember is your recollection is fairly limited and you have added in details such as lights being off.

"You have lied to this jury," he said.

"That's completely false," the player replied.

The court heard Beryly Lubala, who was transferred to Blackpool FC in August 2020, has not played football for more than a year.

He was suspended on full pay by the club as soon as they were found out he had been charged with rape in December 2020.

The Professional Footballers' Association (FPA) represented him when the club tried to terminate his contract.

Jurors heard the player's Congolese father brought his family to the UK from the DRC when he was three and they settled in Leicester.

Beryly Lubala denies raping the young woman at his home in Horsham on September 13, 2019.

The trial at Lewes Crown Court in Brighton continues.

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