Vanderbilt football star who urged his friends to gang rape his unconscious girlfriend as he filmed says ALCOHOL is to blame before getting just 17 years in prison - despite victim's plea for full sentence

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The former Vanderbilt football player who encouraged his teammates to participate in a gang rape of his girlfriend while the young woman was unconscious was sentenced in a Tennessee courtroom on Friday.

Brandon Vandenburg, who in June was found guilty on five counts of aggravated rape, two counts of aggravated sexual battery and unlawful photography by a Nashville jury, received only 17 years in prison despite the fact that his conviction allowed for as much as 25 years behind bars.

Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins handed down that ruling shortly after a impact statement was read on behalf of the victim, who was not in court on Friday.

'I still ask that he receive the full sentence allowed under the law for orchestrating the sustained 30-minute gang rape against me, a defenseless woman who trusted him,' read Assistant District Attorney General Jan Norman on behalf of the woman, who aologized for being unable to attend.

'The minimum sentence is not enough for what this man did to me.'

A stoic Vandenburg also read a statement in court Friday, apologizing to the victim and speaking about how ashamed he was, saying: 'My judgment was severely impaired and I'm sad for everyone involved.'

The 23-year-old then said that he could see himself being 'a positive role model' who teaches the youth in the future, before closing out his remarks by telling the court alcohol was to blame for the gang rape.

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Off he goes: Brandon Vandenburg (above) was sentenced to 17 years in prison on Friday

Clean sweep: A jury declared him guilty on five counts of aggravated rape, two counts of aggravated sexual battery and unlawful photograph in June

Final ay: The sentence was handed down by Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins (above) in Nashville, Tennessee on Friday

The victim had only been dating Vandenburg for two weeks when she met him at a bar near the university on the the night of the rape.

She later told police and testified in court that her last memory was of sipping a blue drink at the bar with Vandenburg.

The following morning, the young woman woke up in the football player's bunk bed and noticed she was covered in bruises. 

When she became concerned about the extent of her injuries and her inability to recall what had happened the night before, Vandenburg told her that she had got drunk and he spent the night taking care of her in his room.

'He told me that I had gotten sick in his room and he had to clean it up and that it was horrible and that he had to spend the whole night taking care of me,' she said in court testimony during Vandernburg's first trial.

'I apologized, I was embarrassed.'

A few days later she was contacted by police after they obtained a video from the night that showed the victim being brutally raped by three men, later identified as Cory Batey, Brandon Banks and Jaborian McKenzie.

Vandenburg continued to show no remorse however, going so far as to text the victim at one point after she had viewed the video with police: 'Ok great this is such a mess. I'm never helping anyone get home ever.' 

When he was finally questioned by police Vandenburg claimed that he had merely asked his three teammates to help him put the victim to bed because she was so drunk, claiming they were in his room for less then a minute.

Almost every part of that story was quickly discredited however by surveillance footage taken that night, which captured the men carrying the unconscious victim out of a car and into the building before dragging her on the floor and snapping pictures with her on their phone.

Once presented with this footage, Vandenburg changed his story and told police that the victim had been sexually assaulted but stated that he had not been involved and was unable to stop the rape.

'She got sexually assaulted right in front of me and I didn't do anything. I should've called someone. They deserve to go to jail,' said Vandenburg.

'I wish I just would have left her out in front of the dorm room on the floor. I should've been an an a******.' 

That story also failed to stand up for very long once police spoke with McKenzie, who was Vandenburg's roommate, and two of the football player's friends from California.

Those two friends revealed that Vandenburg had actually sent them video of the gang rape while it was happening, which they turned over to police.

Horrible: The former football star carried his unconscious girlfriend into a room, encouraged his friends to gang rape her and filmed it to share with others (footage as he carried unconscious victim out of car before rape)

Above the law: Vandenburg then lied to police about what happened that night twice, with video footage twice proving his stories to be false

Done: Vandenburg also managed to convince his girlfriend that nothing had happened the morning after the attack

McKenzie meanwhile detailed how Vandenburg deposited his girlfriend facedown on the floor and then encouraged his three friends to rape her while he filmed on his phone.

Batey had sex with the woman McKenzie told police. He also revealed that Vandeburg proved to the men that the victim would not wake up during the attack by slapping her across the face so hard that he left a bruise.

Vandenburg also tried to get a fourth man, his roommate Mark Prioleau, involved at one point, telling him: 'We have this b**** in here. We're gonna f*** her.'

After depositing his girlfriend on the floor, passing out condoms and encouraging his friends to rape the woman while he filmed some video, Vandenburg began to watch porn while trying to give himself an erection.

The 30-minute attack ended with Batey peeing on the woman and Vandenburg assuring the men everything would be fine while flushing their condoms down the toilet, claiming he knew of someone 'who beat a rape case' by disposing of their prophylactics in the same manner.

The jury in the case found Vandenburg guilty after just four hours of deliberation this past June, the second time a jury came to that conclusion. 

Taking a chance: Vandenburg (left) and Cory Batey (right) were the only two to plead not guilty after their arrest

Lawyers for Vandenburg successfully petitioned the court to declare a mistrial after learning that the jury foreman had been a victim of statutory rape, something that he did not disclose prior to the case.

That meant that the victim was once again forced to apepar in court and deliver testimony in both Vandenbur and Batey's trials, the only two men who entered pleas of not guilty.

Batey was also found guilty again in his second trial and sentenced to 15 years in prison. 

The other two men, Bank and McKenzie, entered guilty pleas and agreed to help police in their investigation.

Charges in those two cases are still pending. 

Vandenburg meanwhile seemed to think the second time would be the charm in the case, and was seen shaking his head in disbelief this past June when the jury declared him guilty on all counts after their brief deliberation. 

The convicted rapist and newly registered sex offender was also so moved by his lawyer's closing arguments in the case that he shed a tear.

Different route: Jaborian McKenzie (left) and Brandon Banks (right) both pleaded guilty, and charges are pending in their cases

His victim meanwhile managed to shed no tears in July when she stood in front of the court and read her victim impact statement prior to Batey's sentencing.

The woman, who had been a neuroscience and economics major at Vanderbilt and is now getting her doctorate told the courtroom and her rapist: 'On June 22 of 2013, I was a happy, hard-working Vanderbilt student looking forward to my future. I was 21 years old. 

'I've seen with my own eyes what I was when Mr Batey was done with me. A piece of trash, face down in a hallway covered in his urine and palm prints. A photograph he took himself.

'There are no words to describe the horror of the images from that night and how it feels to watch yourself be dehumanized.' 

The victim said in her statement read in court on Friday that after appearing at Batey's sentencing to deliver her impact statement, and again reliving the rape that occurred three years earlier, she no longer had the strength to appear in court. 

She then asked that the judge reference her July remarks to better understand how the horrific rape and assault has impacted her life.