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England footballer, Mason Greenwood is still being questioned by police after being arrested over allegations of rape and assault.
The Manchester United forward, 20, remained in custody early today having been detained yesterday after disturbing pictures and audio went viral on social media alleging he attacked his 18-year-old girlfriend.
The disturbing images appeared to show the woman bloodied and bruised. In the voice recording, the footballer was heard forcing his girl to have sex with him.
Shortly after the messages emerged online, his club put out a statement saying it was aware of them and they were making inquiries ‘to establish the full circumstances’.
It added: ‘Manchester United does not condone violence of any kind.’
The woman was interviewed by plain clothes officers at her family home yesterday afternoon.
A spokesman for Greater Manchester police said they had launched an investigation after being made ‘aware of online social media images and videos posted by a woman reporting incidents of physical violence’.
He added: ‘Following inquiries we can confirm a man in his 20s has since been arrested on suspicion of rape and assault. He remains in custody for questioning. Inquiries are ongoing.’
Forensic officers also arrived at Greenwood’s £2million mansion in the upmarket village of Bowdon, Cheshire, yesterday evening.
Manchester United suspended the rising star, who earns a reported £75,000 a week, shortly before news of his arrest emerged.
In a second statement, the club hierarchy said the player would ‘not return to training or play matches until further notice’.
The allegedly incriminating posts were online for just a few hours before being deleted.
The woman’s father told the Daily Mail his daughter believed her Instagram account had been hacked.
Speaking from his £1million home in an upmarket Cheshire village, the company director, 61, described the allegations as ‘dreadful’.
‘I’m just coming to terms with it,’ he said. ‘As a father you don’t want to know things like this are happening to your daughter. She is devastated. But she is safe. It is in the hands of the police now.’
Meanwhile, the woman’s older sister told the Sun she was shocked by the news and described the audio clip shared online as ‘disturbing’.
She added: ‘She’s a lovely young girl and no one deserves that. If there isn’t a full investigation by the police then there is something wrong.
I put my trust in them to do the right thing […] I just hope that my sister gets the justice that she deserves – that’s all that matters.’
Campaigners and women’s charities also welcomed the investigation into the ‘shocking’ allegations.
Former chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal said the pictures, and particularly the voice note, were ‘shocking in the extreme’. ‘Manchester United must deal with it but it is also clearly a police matter,’ he said.
