A WOMAN who alleges she was raped by a professional footballer spent the night with a female friend who was also a prosecution witness in the middle of the trial, a jury has heard.

Former Sunderland player Cabral, 27, denies two counts of rape said to have occurred at his Gateshead apartment following a night out in Newcastle.

The jury has heard the woman met the footballer, real name Adilson Tavares Varela, in a nightclub where he bought a magnum of vodka costing £1,200 in a VIP area.

Cape Verde-born Cabral, who now plays for Swiss team FC Zurich, was accused of pinning her down on his bed and raping her after she came back to his two-bed apartment along with fellow Sunderland player Antony Reverillere and a nightclub DJ.

During the trial at Hull Crown Court, his barrister Kitty Taylor has shown the jury mobile phone footage of the complainant in bed with Newcastle United players Kevin Mbabu and Rolando Aarons on Saturday night - just 36 hours before the trial started.

And Ms Taylor asked the officer in charge of the case, Detective Constable Kit Tipling, if he was aware the complainant, who was still giving evidence, and her female friend, who was about to enter the witness box the next day, spent the whole night together on Tuesday.

The detective replied: "I became aware the next morning."

Neither of the women told him, and he was informed by Witness Care officials, he said.

In a police interview with DC Tipling, Cabral said he first saw the girl in Livello's bar before walking with her to Tup Tup Palace nightclub.

The court heard he then drove the woman and her two friends and his two friends to his apartment in his white Mercedes. He said that he insisted they took their shoes off to protect his carpet.

Cabral said she initiated sex and denied ever being aggressive or threatening to put his hands around her neck.

Mr Tipling agreed, when asked, that the footballer was of good character, had no previous convictions, had never been investigated by the police and there had been no complaints from women about his conduct while out in Newcastle.

Judge Jeremy Richardson QC adjourned the case until Friday morning when he told the jury the defendant will give evidence and the jury might be sent out to consider their verdicts next Wednesday.