Today's report (copied from the Guardian but reported by AAP):
Jack de Belin's alleged rape victim messaged 'help' after attack, court hears
The NRL star is on trial in Wollongong accused of raping a 19-year-old with a friend in late 2018
Australian Associated Press
Published:14:16 Wed 4 November 2020
Jack de Belin’s alleged rape victim messaged “help” to a friend after slipping away from the NRL star in a nightclub line after the attack, a jury has heard.
The St George Illawarra player, 29, and Shell Cove man Callan Sinclair, 23, have pleaded not guilty to the aggravated sexual assault of the woman in a North Wollongong unit in December 2018.
Both men say everyone was consenting but the woman has said they ignored her protests and cries.
The Wollongong district court jury has heard the trio caught an Uber to the city’s CBD and joined a nightclub line after the alleged assault. But the woman, then 19, quickly walked away from the line minutes later when some of the men’s friends arrived.
After getting around a corner, she opened Instagram and messaged a male friend she knew was also out partying, the court was told.
“Help,” the message read. She told the friend she was “not that OK”. But the court heard she declined to elaborate, telling the friend “probably something I can’t tell you anyways”.
'I was numb inside': Jack de Belin rape trial hears from alleged victim of NRL star
“For someone to just hear it straight up, it’s quite horrific,” the alleged victim told the court on Wednesday. “What had happened to me was quite horrific and I thought I couldn’t tell him at that time.”
The friend’s housemate then reached out on Snapchat, the court was told. He’d seen the woman with de Belin and Sinclair before the alleged rape. “The guys you saw me with just abused me,” she messaged him.
The woman told the court she turned down an offer to spend the night at the friend’s home and another to smoke weed with a third person she’d messaged. “I ended up going home to bed and crying myself to sleep,” she said.
De Belin and Sinclair are accused of “cheering each other on” while assaulting the tearful woman who said they ignored her protests.
The footballer “doesn’t and never has” disputed sexual activity took place but says it was consensual, his barrister, David Campbell SC, told the jury on Tuesday.
Craig Smith SC, for Sinclair, told the jury his client didn’t sexually assault the teenager. “There is evidence both before and after that activity that is consistent with that activity being consensual activity,” he said.
The alleged victim on Tuesday told the jury during the attack she “was just going dead and numb inside and just let it happen”. “I only weigh 51 kilograms – they’re twice the size of me,” she said.
The trial continues.