Andy Carroll names TV dance coach Kevin Adams as 2021 attacker

Former England footballer Andy Carroll has told the Sun newspaper that the man who sexually assaulted him in 2021 was TV dance coach Kevin Adams, the report published on 5 October 2026.

Carroll, a 37-year-old former Newcastle United and West Ham striker, first disclosed the assault in his autobiography Owning It, published last month; the book did not identify his attacker.

Adams appeared on the BBC series Fame Academy in 2002 and made several television appearances as a dancer or dance instructor from the late 1990s onwards. BBC News understands Adams was given a custodial sentence for the assault in 2023. He was found guilty following a trial in September of that year and sentenced to 20 months imprisonment the following November at Chelmsford Crown Court.

The Sun said Carroll had decided to name Adams after becoming aware his attacker's name was in publicly available court documents. Adams has not commented publicly since Carroll named him as the man who attacked him.

Carroll previously said he was attacked while he was asleep by a friend of his former partner, who had visited his home to watch a boxing match; Carroll was playing for his boyhood club Newcastle United at the time. He said he was being assaulted when he woke up and threw his attacker out of the house, before knocking him unconscious when he tried to return.

Carroll said in his autobiography that he had "spent a lot of time discussing whether to mention it in this book or not", adding: "I avoided my publisher for so long that they probably suspected I got cold feet." He wrote: "Scary to talk about but it's made [me] 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 help and support with sexual abuse or violence is available. BBC Action Line.