Midfielder faces seven charges of rape in total
Judge says trial may be delayed until early next year
The former Arsenal midfielder Thomas Partey has pleaded not guilty to two new allegations of rape.
The 32-year-old appeared at Southwark crown court on Monday to deny raping a woman twice in London on a single day in December 2020. Partey, who left Arsenal for Villarreal last summer, was charged in July last year with five counts of rape and one allegation of sexual assault, dating back to 2021 and 2022. He previously pleaded not guilty to those charges and a trial was set for November this year.
The two new rape charges were announced in February this year, and on Monday, Mr Justice Baumgartner, the recorder of Westminster, agreed for all the allegations to be tried together. But he warned Partey and lawyers in the case that the trial could now be delayed until January next year.
