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'Trial by terraces'

THE GUARDIAN/REUTERS, London
Police investigating the alleged rape of a 17-year-old girl by up to eight Premiership footballers Saturday appealed for witnesses to come forward amid growing speculation about the identity of the individuals and clubs involved.
The senior investigating officer in charge of the case also said that everyone who was at the Grovesnor Hotel last weekend, where the attack is alleged to have taken place, would be interviewed.
Police are understood to believe that the girl's story is credible; interviews with players alleged to have been involved are expected to start next week.
Commander John Yates warned that it could be a number of weeks before charges are brought or the case is dismissed.
"This investigation is still at an early stage," he said.
"I will not put a timescale on how the matters would progress. Rape and sexual assault investigations are by their very nature extremely complex. It is thus vitally important that the police are in a position to
consider all of the circumstances prior to taking any action. This will take time and I urge all those involved to show patience and restraint."
Publicist Max Clifford said that he has been engaged by the girl's father to "advise them and to protect them".
"They are very conscious of the fact that people they know are being approached by all kinds of people claiming to be the media with all kinds of information," he said. "No one is discussing anything about selling stories."
Several newspapers claimed that a Chelsea employee was one of those involved, reporting that he had initially met the girl and invited her back to his room.
Chelsea's chief executive, Paul Smith, said: "The club has seen the reports in which we have been named. We would like to make it clear that these are pure speculation and we have had no approach or contact from the authorities over this matter."
Aston Villa, one of the clubs that played in London last weekend, has already issued a statement insisting that none of its players was connected with the case.
The Sun also published a partially pixelated photograph of a player reported to have booked the
room where the alleged attack took place. It reported that the photograph, which showed the player leaving a restaurant in the early hours of Saturday morning, proved he was not present when the attack took place.
A barrister representing one of the players spent most of last week seeking an injunction preventing him being named, and lawyers representing another player have requested a meeting with the attorney general. That request is unlikely to be granted.
One concern is that fans of rival clubs will attempt to hound out the players in songs or by holding up placards during this weekend's Premiership games.
Fans, notorious for their colourful taunts, are expected to rile specific players with the rape allegations from the stands during live television broadcasts today.
"I don't think the seriousness of these (possible) charges will make them hold back," a spokesman for the Football Supporters Association said.
ITV, which carries Premiership highlights, said: "We will be asking our compliance lawyers to take a close look at everything to make sure nothing legally questionable gets on air."
Sky and Radio 5 Live are pre-
pared to turn off their atmosphere microphones to prevent supporters' chants being heard.
"We will be extra vigilant this weekend," said a spokeswoman for 5 Live.
"It could happen at any game and we will be listening hard to see that nothing gets through."
Producers on the station's live football phone-in, 606, have also been warned that callers may try to name players or clubs.
But unofficial comment is rife on the Internet with some sites fearing they could open themselves to legal action if players are falsely accused.
Web site operators and Internet service providers must remove defamatory statements from their sites once they are alerted to the offending material or they will lose protection provided to them under the 1996 Defamation Act.
"We've temporarily closed our message boards because we don't want them to be abused and until the situation clears up a little bit," said a spokeswoman for football Web site rivals.net, which boasts two million users per month.