The former England international has been overwhelmed by the public support he has received since coming out on trial in his autobiography, Owning It.
Former West Ham star Andy Carroll is grateful for the “massive” support he received after being sexually assaulted. A 37-year-old man spoke about the trauma he received after the incident in which the aggressor was imprisoned for 20 months.
Five years passed between the incident and Carroll’s account of it in his autobiography, Owning It. The attack took place during a spell at his hometown club Newcastle in 2021 and the perpetrator was a friend of his ex-partner.
The striker, who is currently at Dagenham and Redbridge, wrote that he was asleep when the incident happened. He claims he kicked the man out of his home and knocked him unconscious to prevent him from trying to re-enter the property.
“I’ve been beating myself up about it and the outpouring of support I’ve had as soon as I’ve said it has been overwhelming,” Carroll told Football Uncensored.
“And I think the biggest thing for me is that if I had said this five years ago, maybe I would have felt better now and I would have dealt with it later.
“I’m happy with who I am, I’m happy with how I’ve dealt with it and I’ve been surrounded by support from my partner, family and friends and now the community.”
Carroll also described it as “humiliating, embarrassing and absolutely terrifying” to testify in court where the attacker was convicted of sex offenses and added to the sex offenders’ register.
“It was eating me alive for a long time,” he said. “There are some things you just can’t get over and I will never, ever get over that.
“But now I know that people can see who I was at that time and what I was going through and help and support me.”
Carroll spent seven years on West Ham’s books during his playing days, initially on loan from Liverpool for £15m. He scored 34 goals for the clubs in 142 games, including a memorable hat-trick in a 3-3 draw with Arsenal.
He rejoined boyhood club Newcastle in 2019, spending two seasons in the north-east of England. Spells in the Championship followed at Reading and West Bromwich Albion before the striker spent two years in France with Amiens and Bordeaux.
Carroll returned to England in 2025 and joined the playing staff in addition to serving as a minority shareholder at Dagenham and Redbridge. He scored six times in 12 National League South matches in his first year with the Daggers, who are currently sitting in the play-off spots just months into his second season.