Former England footballer Andy Carroll has cancelled a book signing and question and answer session at Dagenham Football Club just hours before the event was due to take place. The footballer, 37, was due to attend his own event later this evening.
Event cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances
The event was scheduled to begin at 7pm at Dagenham & Redbridge FC, Victoria Road Stadium, and included a book signing and live Q&A. Tickets were priced at £10. The club confirmed it had been cancelled "due to unforeseen circumstances" and that ticket holders would be refunded.
Carroll had posted on Instagram two weeks ago: "I'll be at Victoria Road Stadium sharing stories from my life on and off the pitch and answering your questions. It'll be a chance to have a proper chat, look back at the journey so far and spend an evening together."
Revelation in new book
Carroll's £22 book, titled Owning It, was released today. In it, he opened up about how he was sexually assaulted in a "traumatic" attack, revealing he "can't forget" the harrowing ordeal.
After "avoiding his publisher for so long", Carroll said he decided "at the last minute" to waive his anonymity and write about the attack in the hopes it might help others. In the book, the former England international said: "Something happened to me a few years ago that was so traumatic I only decided to include it in this book at the very last minute. I was sexually assaulted, there I said it. Scary to even think about and only a few people knew about it before now.
"Me and Lou spent a lot of time discussing whether to mention it in this book or not. I avoided my publisher for so long that they probably suspected I got cold feet.
"Scary to talk about but it's made the person I am today as much as any of the good stuff. And if me talking about it helps just one person then good it will have been worth it."
Details of the attack
Carroll revealed he was assaulted the evening after a Newcastle United game when a "celebrity mate" of his former partner invited himself round to watch a boxing match. 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.
"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 claims he awoke to the friend sexually assaulting him. Carroll's attacker was found guilty of sexual offences and sentenced to three years in prison.
