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A FORMER Man Utd wonderkid raped a woman with his pal after a night out, a court heard today.John Cofie, 30, and friend Nathan Stuart allegedly attacked the woman when she was too drunk to consent.
John Cofie is accused of raping a woman with a palCredit: PA:Empics Sport
Sean McGinty, Paul Pogba, Sam Johnstone, Cofie and Jesse Lingard celebrate winning the FA Youth Cup for Man Utd in 2011Credit: Getty – Contributor
Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard how she had met the pair while on a night in Altrincham in April 2019.
She and a friend visited a few bars with Cofie and Stuart before her pal decided to go home, it was said.
Jurors were told the alleged victim was then seen “hanging off” Cofie’s arm and “slurring her words”.
She ended up back at Stuart’s home where she was allegedly raped by the pair.
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The woman was picked up by her parents at around 3am after they reported her missing when she failed to return home.
She was “incoherent” and “not mentally alert” at the time, it was said.
The court heard she had no recollection of the events and was later told by Stuart she’d had sex with him and Cofie.
She claims she may have been spiked as it felt “similar” to a previous experience as a teenager.
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The “distressed” woman was taken to hospital after she began “shaking and hyperventilating”, and was told the amount she drank couldn’t explain her memory loss, nausea, vomiting and headache.
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When she told Stuart how unwell she felt, he allegedly told her: “Well, you don’t think we spiked you?”
But when she questioned him further, he said they’d had sex and Cofie “was there as well”.
The woman then told Stuart she wanted to carry out checks with the police, causing him to warn her: “Forget it and move on”.
After Cofie and Stuart were arrested, they maintained she had consented to the sexual activity.
Jurors heard officers went through the pair’s phones and discovered Stuart had messaged his footballer pal advising him to “say nada”.
Stuart, of Northwich, Cheshire, denies two counts of rape while Cofie, of Sale, Greater Manchester, denies three counts of rape.
Cofie became the youngest million pound footballer when he signed for Man Utd from Burnley in 2007 aged just 14.
He played alongside Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard but left the club in 2013 when he failed to make the senior team.
Ghanaian-born Cofie then had spells at Barnsley, Crawley Town and Wrexham.
He also played on loan at clubs including Sheffield United and Belgian side Antwerp.
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After hanging up his boots aged 27, he worked at a school mentoring children for a football programme.
The trial continues.
Cofie, pictured at a previous court hearing, denies rapeCredit: CHRIS NEILL
Cofie had spells at 13 different clubs in his career More

HARRY MAGUIRE’S fight to clear his name more than three years after an alleged holiday assault has been delayed again – as Greek lawyers go on strike.The Manchester United star, 30, was arrested on an August 2020 family holiday and convicted of assault and attempted bribery in Mykonos after a late-night bar brawl.
Manchester United star Harry Maguire during his infamous 2020 interview about the Mykonos brawlCredit: Twitter/DanRoan
Harry Maguire (right) with sister Daisy Maguire in Mykonos
Harry Maguire pictured with his partner Fern Hawkins in Mykonos
The star centre-back has always vehemently denied any wrongdoing and immediately appealed in 2020 – nullifying the convictions and sparking a new trial.
But repeated delays to his appeal have caused the convoluted case to drag on for more than three years.
And now thanks to strikes by Greek lawyers, hopes of putting the infamous incident behind him have been dashed once again.
The footballer will not see the inside of a Greek court again until March 12, 2025 – marking four and a half years since the night of the alleged assault.
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A lawyer at the appeals court in Syros said the date of the new trial, 1665 days after the night of the bar clash, was announced much sooner than expected.
“A lot of us want to be done with this case,” one insider at the court revealed.
“But there is nothing we can do because of this union action. Lawyers can’t be seen to be strike-breakers.”  
The hearing, they told The Sun, had been listed as Number 19 on the docket. “It was the last case due to be heard”, they added.
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Harry was initially found guilty of assaulting police, resisting arrest and attempted bribery following the clash outside Mykonos bar Bonbonniere.
He was handed a suspended jail sentence of 21 months and 10 days but saw the conviction quashed after he was granted an appeal.
It nullified the original verdict and left a retrial to be decided in a more senior court – which still has yet to happen.
I thought we were getting kidnapped. We got down on our knees, we put our hands in the air, they just started hitting us.Harry Maguire
The retrial was first postponed due to the Covid pandemic.
It was later scheduled for June last year, but Maguire’s legal team requested it be pushed back.
If he is now found guilty in March 2025, he will not be able to receive a more severe punishment than his original sentence.
Maguire’s brother, Joe, and friend, Christopher Sharman, were also handed suspended sentences of 13 months.
Soon after his arrest, Maguire gave a frank interview where he said he was “scared for his life” as Greek cops handcuffed him and bashed his legs with a baton.
HARRY MAGUIRE MYKONOS BATTLE TIMELINE

He infamously told the BBC: “I did nothing wrong”, and said police disguised in plain clothes told him “your career is over, no more football, you won’t play again”.
“I thought we were getting kidnapped. We got down on our knees, we put our hands in the air, they just started hitting us”, Maguire, then 27, said.
He went on: “They were hitting my leg saying my career is over, ‘No more football. You won’t play again’.
“And at this point I thought there is no chance these are police or I don’t know who they are so I tried to run away, I was in that much of a panic, fear, scared for my life. All the way through it.”
Maguire claims the fight erupted after “an Albanian thug” injected his younger sister, Daisy, with an unknown substance outside a Mykonos bar.
The then Manchester United captain said he and his brother, Joe, who was also detained, were forced to intervene when they saw Daisy faint.
Moments earlier, he said, she had been stabbed by “this gangster type.”
“It’s been very tough on Daisy,” he told the BBC during his 2020 interview.  
A friend of their family also told a Greek court in 2020 that they saw Daisy fitting after she was injected with a “rape drug”.
A scuffle later allegedly broke out between cops and the trio, where one officer was punched and another needed first aid – Maguire has denied ever attacking the police.
They were hitting my leg saying my career is over, ‘No more football. You won’t play again.’Harry Maguire
Fern Hawkins, who was in Mykonos with the centre-back at the time of the brawl, launched into a passionate defence of her boyfriend at the time and accused Greek cops of “lying”.
One officer claimed during the 2020 case that Maguire had boasted “Don’t you know who I am” when he was arrested, which Fern slammed as an attempt to “ruin Harry’s reputation”.
Pals say the episode has taken “a huge emotional toll” on Maguire.
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In May last year a judge postponed proceedings after the footballer’s top-league lawyer, Alexis Anagnostakis, told the court he was unable to attend because his presence was needed at a higher court in Athens – permissible under Greek law.
The footballer has said he is willing to give evidence by video link when the case is eventually seen in court, but does not want to return to Syros in person.
Harry Maguire spoke to the BBC’s sports editor Dan Roan in 2020Credit: BBC
Maguire will now have to wait until March 12 2025 for his appeal trial
Harry with his brothers Laurence and Joe
Maguire was captain of Manchester United when he was charged – pictured playing with the team on February 4 this yearCredit: Getty More