Andy Carroll names Kevin Adams as attacker following 2023 conviction

Former England striker Andy Carroll has identified television dance coach Kevin Adams as the man who sexually assaulted him. BBC News reported on Monday that Carroll named Adams in an interview with the Sun, after previously describing the assault without identifying his attacker in his autobiography.

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According to BBC News, Adams was found guilty after a trial in September 2023 and received a 20-month prison sentence at Chelmsford Crown Court that November. The BBC said it understood that the conviction related to the assault on Carroll. Adams appeared as a dance coach on the BBC programme Fame Academy from 2002.

Carroll, 37, first made the assault public in Owning It, published last month. The BBC reported that he decided to identify Adams after learning that the name was available in public court documents. The latest disclosure therefore names the person convicted, rather than announcing a new prosecution or court decision.

In his earlier account, Carroll said the attacker had visited his home to watch boxing and assaulted him while he was asleep. BBC News reported that Carroll was playing for English club Newcastle United at the time.

SPORTbible separately reported that Carroll had asked people not to circulate photographs showing him alongside Adams. He did not want coverage of the case to keep confronting him with images of his attacker. The outlet also reported that the sentence included ten years on the sex offenders' register and a restriction preventing Adams from entering the village where Carroll lived.

In comments to the Sun on Sunday reproduced by Goal, Carroll said the experience had seriously affected both him and the people close to him, and expressed hope that he could begin moving forward. His decision to speak publicly followed hesitation about including the assault in his memoir. As BBC News reported, he ultimately hoped that discussing it might help someone else. The BBC said Adams had not commented publicly since Carroll identified him.