Former England winger discusses false rape charge as he ‘rebuilds life’ after being ‘blocked’ by PREM clubs
Former England winger discusses false rape charge as he 'rebuilds life' after being 'blocked' by PREM clubs
In January 2022, Marland Yarde was wrongly accused of rape by sex worker Sandra Ntonya. Since then, he’s been working hard to put his life back together.
The now 33-year-old recently appeared on The Good, The Bad & The Rugby podcast to discuss his life post-rugby.
Yarde reflected on the woman who made the false accusations, saying he no longer holds “strong dislike” in his heart.
“I can only blame myself, and I had to look at myself within myself first. You have to take responsibility for putting yourself in that scenario. I should never have been around this person,” he said.
“As a professional athlete, you have a responsibility; you have a lot of kids who look up to you. You have a responsibility to your teammates, to your family and everyone else that’s associated with you. So, being with people like that, or being around someone who can potentially harm that or harm your character, you need to protect that.”
At the time, the former rugby player wasn’t aware of quite how vulnerable a position he was in, admitting now that Ntonya had “stalked” him for many months, and was not “aware” of the numerous photos found on her phone of Yarde in different places.
Recalling the events that led to the accusations, Yarde said: “I was going through a pretty difficult period of time mentally, in terms of life and family at home, and I was living out of home for a couple of months. I think it was a case of just hanging around the wrong people and being in the wrong place.
“I speak about my mum. She always says to me that you might meet 1000 people, there’s always gonna be one person that potentially things aren’t gonna go well, and derails everything.”
The fallout
At the time of the accusations, the defendant, Yarde, could not be legally named in the press, leading to plenty of public speculation. Unable to defend himself, Yarde was desperate simply to return to rugby.
“I obviously knew that I had never done anything wrong. But as an athlete, you can’t really say anything. So I was cast in the dark, and it lasted a lot longer than I thought it would.”
Yarde was cleared of any charges, and Ntonya admitted to making up the rape accusations. She also spent time in prison after breaking the conditions of her restraining order filed against her.
After leaving Sale Sharks, Yarde struggled to return to club rugby in England, with his pathway being blocked at every opportunity.
“I’ve got coaches throughout the Premiership who are like, ‘yeah, we will take him’. But then maybe the CEO or someone’s just blocked it. So I’m like, at what stage is my life supposed to just be over now? Because I know I haven’t done anything wrong. So I’m now almost in prison in my life.”
Despite the challenges that he’s faced, Yarde is insistent on looking at the bright side of life, claiming that the experience has allowed him to “grow”.
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“I feel like this allowed me to grow. I always need to hit the bottom to really appreciate everything that I have in life, like I was truly blessed to do what I did. I feel like doing the whole experience, going abroad and playing as well. Once this continued to happen, I wanted to take my life into my own hands.
“So it was just about like I need to grow as a person. And it just made me a better person. It made me appreciate the things, protecting your peace, protecting people around you.”
The former England winger spent a season out in France with Bayonne, playing some of the most enjoyable rugby of his career. Now retired from the sport, he has the opportunity to rebuild.