Accuser’s story ‘doesn’t make sense’: court
It is inconceivable NRL star Jack de Belin would commit a vicious and protracted rape of a young woman just moments after seeing a man who could “expose” him, a court has been told.
As closing addresses continued in the District Court trial of the footballer and his friend, Callan Sinclair, Mr de Belin’s barrister David Campbell SC told the jury they simply could not accept the woman’s story.
The court has been told allegations the men forced vaginal, oral and anal sex on the woman, then 19, at a unit after meeting on the dancefloor of the popular Wollongong nightclub Mr Crown.
Mr de Belin, 30, and Mr Sinclair, 23, have pleaded not guilty to five counts of aggravated sexual assault and maintain the threesome in the early hours of December 9, 2018 was consensual.
On Friday, Mr Campbell said both men had been “eternally consistent” in their denials from the moment they heard rumours circulating that the woman was complaining about the incident.
Jack de Belin denies raping the woman. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy PiperSource:News Corp Australia
He said that could be heard in intercepted phone calls played to the court in which Mr de Belin said he wanted to speak to the police and tell them he’d done “nothing wrong” but was advised not to by his lawyer.
“It’s on the tapes. You heard it,” Mr Campbell told the Downing Centre District Court. “They wanted to speak, they wanted to tell the truth. They said they’d done nothing wrong.”
The court has been told that after they left the nightclub, Mr de Belin, Mr Sinclair and the woman caught a tuktuk back to an apartment rented by Mr de Belin’s cousin and went to a vacant upstairs bedroom.
At the North Wollongong home was a man named Troy Martin, who told the court he came to the bedroom door after hearing noises.
Mr Martin said he saw the woman lying on her back naked, with an also nude Mr de Belin standing at the foot of the bed and a clothed Mr Sinclair nearby.
He said Mr de Belin followed him to a nearby bathroom to apologise before returning to the bedroom.
Callan Sinclair told the court he was shocked at the allegations. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy PiperSource:News Corp Australia
Mr Campbell told the jury that Mr Martin’s presence at the home, which was denied by the woman, raised serious doubts about her claims of sexual assault.
“Mr Martin is in a position to hear, potentially to come back. Mr Martin could expose them,” he said.
“Yet, according to the complainant, in the knowledge of his presence, (the men) embark upon this protracted, continued, vicious and violent attack.
“It just doesn’t make sense … that anyone with a modicum of sense would engage in those circumstances even if they had thought about doing it before because they run an inevitable risk of getting caught.”
In her closing address, Mr Sinclair’s barrister Sharyn Hall questioned why the woman would have caught an Uber back into town with the men if she had been so viciously assaulted as claimed.
“Why would she go back out with them? Why would she be waiting on the corner for Mr de Belin to have a photo with fans?” Ms Hall asked.
“Why wouldn’t she use her phone, which she had access to, and make a genuine request for help?
“Because she wanted to be there. She wanted to be with these men and she wanted to engage in the activities she engaged in.
“Perhaps she regretted it afterwards … sometimes it’s easy to convince yourself that you really didn’t want to do those things in the first place.”
The trial continues.
Originally published asHow witness could have ‘exposed’ NRL star
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