Wellington - An allegation that four English rugby players raped a New Zealand teenager will haunt them for the rest of their lives, a legal expert said Monday after the team flew home at the end of their tour. The players refused to talk about the incident to police, who did not lay charges because the 18-year-old woman who claimed she was raped did not file a formal complaint.
But Scott Optican, an associate law professor at Auckland University, told Radio New Zealand that authorities could still prosecute if they decided they had strong evidence and that charges could be laid many years after an offence had taken place.
The possibility of rape charges still being brought would hang over the heads of the four players for the rest of their lives, and they may be unwise to return to New Zealand, he said.
The English team flew home Sunday at the end of their three-week tour with reports about the alleged rape at Auckland's Hilton Hotel, after a match against New Zealand on June 14, still dominating newspapers.
As they left, the Sunday Star Times reported that the woman, who worked in a local bar, had sought hospital treatment after leaving the hotel and was examined by police doctors, but the extent of her injuries was not known.
Reports said the rape complaint was quite separate from the story of Auckland model Sophie Lewis, 22, who sold her account of a night of uninhibited sex at the hotel with one of the England players to Britain's News of the World.
