Former England footballer Andy Carroll has revealed he was sexually assaulted by a star of the BBC’s Fame Academy show.
The 37-year-old, who played for Newcastle, Liverpool and West Ham United, named dance coach Kevin Adams as the person who attacked him while he slept at his home in 2019.
Carroll first revealed details of the attack in his autobiography, Owning It, published last month.
Without naming his abuser, he described how a television celebrity had been jailed for the sexual assault, and how the trauma still affected him every day.
However, after learning the perpetrator’s details were publicly available in court documents, Carroll confirmed Adams was the attacker.
He told the Sun on Sunday: “Now that Kevin Adams has been named in court documents as my abuser, I can confirm it. Hopefully now I can finally start to put this chapter behind me”.
He added: “This had a devastating impact on my life and my loved ones”.
In his book, Carroll described how the attack happened at his home during his second spell at Newcastle United, his hometown club.
He explained how Adams had invited himself round to watch the boxing and offered to mix some drinks.
“I start to feel light headed and think he has 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’.”
The footballer, who played nine times for England, described waking to find the man assaulting him.
“I sleep naked, and when I wake up, this guy is under the duvet,” he wrote.
Carroll said he threw the man out of the house and called police, only to discover the man had claimed to have been attacked without provocation.
Adams, who appeared as a choreographer, dance coach and fitness instructor on Fame Academy in 2002, was jailed for 20 months at Chelmsford Crown Court in September 2023 after being found guilty of sexual assault.
He was forced to sign the sex offenders register, and at his sentencing, the judge criticised the way he had tried to deflect blame on to Carroll.
Judge Mary Loram told Adams: “You spun a literally incredible tale in which you painted yourself as the victim”.
She said she thought there was little chance of rehabilitation, and gave him an immediate custodial sentence.
Carroll, who currently plays for Dagenham and Redbridge FC in the National League South, said the incident still affected him.
Writing in his book, he said: “What happened to me affected every facet of my life. I’d think about it every day, making it difficult to focus on anything else, including football ... The trauma of what happened to me hasn’t gone away”.
Fame Academy was a television talent show that ran on the BBC in 2002 and 2003. It was hosted by Patrick Kielty and Cat Deeley.
Adams, now 59, also featured in a Comic Relief celebrity spin-off and appeared on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two show.
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