Former England and Liverpool footballer Andy Carroll has opened up on his sexual assault after Fame Academy dance instructor Kevin Adams was named as his attacker.
Adams, now 59, was convicted at Chelmsford Crown Court and sentenced to 20 months in prison in 2023.
Carroll, 37, revealed the name of the 'celebrity mate' who attacked him after being made aware that Adams's name appears in publicly-available court documents.
'It was eating me alive inside for so long,' he said on Piers Morgan Uncensored. 'There's certain things you can't get over, and I'll never, ever get over that. But now I know that people can see who I was then, in that time, and what I've been through and they help me and support me.
'Until two weeks ago, when it came out, still in the back of my head I was like, "When is it going to drop? When is the name (going to) come out?" It was really, really difficult.
'So when the name came out, I kind of freaked out and I was just like, "I don't want to speak to anyone". And I shut myself away. Before that I was kind of alright. It was out there, that happened. I'm at Dagenham at the moment and the lads there have been fantastic, the staff and everything. But then when the name was ready to come out, I just panicked and I just didn't know what to do.
Andy Carroll (right), pictured with girlfriend Lou Teasdale, has opened up on his sexual abuse, admitting he will 'never forget it'
Kevin Adams was sentenced to 20 months in prison in 2023 for sexually assaulting Carroll
'The social media comments that I've been getting and receiving, that it's giving me a little bit of support to say, "Yeah, go on then, get it out there and people will be aware of this because no one talks about it".'
Adams appeared as a coach on the BBC1 talent show in 2002, as well as Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two in 2021.
Carroll – who now plays for National League South club Dagenham & Redbridge and serves as assistant manager – shared in his new book, Owning It, that he experienced the 'traumatic' assault several years ago but only decided 'at the last minute' to detail it, following lengthy discussions with his publisher.
The footballer revealed he woke up after having a 'few drinks' to find his 'celebrity mate' attempting to give him oral sex.
Carroll added: 'I've been beating myself up about it and as soon as I've said it, the support that I've received has been massive. And I think that's the main thing really for me, that if I said that five years ago when it happened, maybe I would have felt a lot better now and then got over it.
'It's difficult to actually speak his name. Talking about it is hard, and, I'm not over it, and I'll probably never get over it, but I do feel a little bit relieved that it's out there.
'People can see what I've been through. My time back at Newcastle wasn't great. There was obviously that going on in the background… there was a lot of things going on and I was struggling and I probably didn't have the support that I needed. And now I feel like I do and I feel like I do with the public as well. I think people are coming up to me in games and like nice comments.'
Carroll explained he was assaulted the evening after a Newcastle United game when Adams invited himself round to watch a boxing match.
The striker, 37, shared in his new book, Owning It, that he experienced the 'traumatic' assault several years ago
Describing their relationship, he wrote: 'He was always asking me and my ex to go out with him and even buys me clothes. He is divorced with kids but I can't shift the feeling he likes me more than a platonic way.
'Whenever I bump into him at parties he is always with young boys.'
He continued: 'I was playing down south somewhere and on my way home this guy texts to ask what I am up to.
'When he texts again to ask if he can come round to watch the boxing with me, my partner tells me to stop pieing him off (putting him off).
'He takes over the kitchen, mixing drinks. I start to feel lightheaded and think has he slipped me something. "Right, time for bed", I say to him, "I'll order you a taxi".
'"Oh no," he says, "I'll stay in the spare room".'
He then claimed he awoke to find Adams sexually assaulting him.
'I sleep naked and when I wake up this guy is under the duvet trying to give me a blowjob.'
Carroll went on to 'smack' him as he ordered him out the house. 'I smack him as hard as I can and he hits the deck,' he wrote.
Adams was subsequently found guilty of sexual offences and imprisoned.
He was also placed on the Sex Offender Register and banned from entering the village where Carroll lived.
Adams had tried to argue in his defence that he had been assaulted by Carroll but the judge told him: 'You spun a literally incredible tale in which you painted yourself as the victim. You've actually started to believe your own lies.'