Former college football player Brandon Vandenburg convicted in rape case

A former American college football player has been convicted in a jury trial for encouraging his teammates to rape an unconscious woman he had been dating.

It took jurors just over four hours of deliberation on Saturday before finding former football player Brandon Vandenburg guilty on multiple counts of aggravated rape and aggravated sexual battery. He was also convicted on one count of unlawful photography.

In addition to Vandenburg, three other former players were charged in the case; however, only two were accused of raping the female student in a dorm room in June of 2013.

Vandenburg's defense had argued that Vanderburg was a newly-arrived recruit to Vanderbilt University in Nashville and had asked his teammates to assist him with carrying the unconscious woman to his room after he couldn't get her into her apartment. His lawyers told jurors that the other players had then begun to assault the woman upon entering the room.

The prosecution, however, had portrayed Vandenburg as a villain who betrayed the trust of the woman by plying her with alcohol and then encouraging others to violate her.