A female streaker who went topless during a Middlesbrough football match says Paul Gascoigne pleaded with her “don’t do this to me”.
Rachel Sadler, now 41, ran onto the pitch during Middlesbrough’s game with Newcastle on December 6, 1998, along with her friend Vanessa Richards.
Ms Sadler wore nothing but red underwear and knee-high boots, while Ms Richards, who passed away in her 20s, donned a Santa outfit.
The pair took a specific liking to Gascoigne, who played more than 50 times for England throughout his illustrious career.
Gascoigne made more than 50 appearances for England
Neil Hanna
Speaking about the incident, Ms Sadler said: “We were so young, 18 or 19. I wanted the limelight, we thought we'd get lots of publicity.
“I was working as a stripper at the time. If I wasn't doing that kind of job, I wouldn't have had the confidence to do it, but I was well up for it.
“Vanessa ran first, I was panicking. I was petrified. I thought: 'If I don't go now, I'll never do it.'
“People around us must have thought 'what the hell are these two doing', especially with us coming dressed like that anyway.”
She told Teesside Live: “I fell over an advertising board, trying to get on the pitch. All the cameras snapped Vanessa and there were only pictures of my behind, but I've since seen some full frontals of me with my boobs blurred.
“Gazza (Gascoigne) was just running backwards, shaking his hands and laughing, saying 'please don't do this to me'. Vanessa tried to jump on his back. He was stood with his foot on the goalpost laughing as we got taken off.
“It was absolutely freezing, even though we'd knocked a couple of whiskies back before we went in. It was the Middlesbrough-Newcastle derby match and there were 36,000 in the crowd.
“People put their coats around us and took us off the pitch. I'd never been arrested in my life, but I wasn't bothered. The whole experience outweighed it all.
“We ended up being released from the police station, they let us take a blanket with us then we went to South Shields, to a pub I worked in, and had a massive party."
Paul Gascoigne told the streakers "please don't do this to me."
Neil Munns