Robinho bags nine years in prison over role in gang rape
Former Manchester City star Robinho has been sentenced to nine years in prison for his role in a gang rape way back in 2013.
Robinho, 37, was accused of raping a woman in her 20s at an Italian nightclub in 2013.
He was originally found guilty in 2017 before he was sentenced in December of last year.
The disgraced footballer chose to appeal the verdict, which has now been upheld in Milan’s Court of Appeal.
New details have since emerged in the Court of Appeal, alleging that Robinho and his representatives ‘attempted to deceive investigators’ by providing different accounts on ‘previously agreed facts’, according to Globo.
The Court of Appeal also added that Robinho ‘belittled’ and ‘brutally humiliated’ the woman.
His conviction has been upheld as a result, along with that friend Richard Falco, who was also charged with the offence.
Robinho was originally convicted using evidence of intercepted phone calls and messages, in which the footballer is alleged to have boasted ‘the woman was completely drunk’.
His lawyers attempted to dismiss the leaked phone calls and messages by claiming they ‘have not been correctly translated into the Italian language.’
Such claims fell on deaf ears, and now Robinho’s team only have one final chance to overturn their client’s guilty verdict. The star has 45 days to lodge a further appeal with the Supreme Court.
In Italy, no prison sentence takes effect until all methods of appeal have been exhausted, and with the Supreme Court being Italy’s highest court of appeal.
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Robinho’s contract with Santos had been suspended prior to the outcome of the recent appeal hearing, with club president Orlando Rollo confirming the player would be sacked if the verdict is upheld.
The striker re-joined his boyhood club in 2020 after spells at European giants Real Madrid, Manchester City and AC Milan, whom he was playing for at the time of the incident.