Manchester United and England ace Mason Greenwood, 20, is ARRESTED on suspicion of rape and assault
Manchester United and England ace Mason Greenwood, 20, is ARRESTED on suspicion of rape and assault: Police pictured outside player’s home after disturbing allegations are made on social media and club announces he is suspended
Mason Greenwood, 20, was arrested by Greater Manchester Police yesterdayHe is in police custody on suspicion of rape and assault while enquiries continueIt follows allegations made on social media accompanied by photos and videos
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England footballer Mason Greenwood was in police custody last night after being arrested over allegations of rape and assault.
The Manchester United forward, 20, was detained after distressing pictures and audio circulated on social media earlier in the day alleging he attacked an 18-year-old student.
The images appeared to show the woman bloodied and bruised.
Another post included a voice recording of a conversation between a man and a woman, dated October last year, which purportedly chronicled the woman being attacked.
Within hours of the messages emerging and spreading across social media, 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.’
Mason Greenwood (pictured with England manager Gareth Southgate) is at the centre of a police investigation and has been arrested on suspicion of rape and assault this weekend
Pictured: A police crime scene investigation van parked outside Mason Greenwood’s house
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’.
Pictured: Crime Scene Investigation unit arrive at Mason Greenwood’s house on Sunday
Police and security stand outside the home of Manchester United Mason Greenwood
News of Greenwood’s suspension and arrest is also likely to put his lucrative sponsorship deal with Nike at risk. Yesterday a spokesman for the sports brand said they were ‘deeply concerned by the disturbing allegations’ and would be ‘closely monitoring the situation’.
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.’
Campaigners and women’s charities also welcomed the investigation into the ‘shocking’ allegations.
Pictured: Manchester United footballer Mason Greenwood was arrested this weekend
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.
Greenwood was born in Bradford in October 2001. At four, he won a local newspaper’s modelling competition and was awarded a £50 voucher and a year with an agency.
Two years later, he joined Manchester United’s famed academy, hoping to follow in the footsteps of previous graduates such as David Beckham and Paul Scholes, having attracted attention by scoring ten goals on his debut for a local youth team.
In March 2019 he became the youngest footballer to play for United in the Champions League, aged 17.
Mason Greenwood, left, playing for Manchester United at Old Trafford on January 22
Greenwood has made 129 appearances for the Old Trafford club, scoring 35 goals. He has the number 11 shirt previously worn by Ryan Giggs.
England manager Gareth Southgate gave him his first cap at the age of just 18 in 2020 – a substitute appearance in a 1-0 away win against Iceland.
However, he was sent home in disgrace following the match after he and team-mate Phil Foden, also 20, broke coronavirus rules by sneaking two Icelandic students into the team hotel.
They were both fined by police in Reykjavik and Greenwood apologised, saying he only had himself to blame for the ‘huge mistake’.
Southgate – who described the pair as ‘naive’ – said that Greenwood would not play for England until 2022 after he was forced to withdraw from the squad for last year’s Euros with injury.
Weeks after the Iceland incident, he was spoken to by Man United officials amid concerns he was not turning up to training on time.
