From aap
'I was numb inside': Jack de Belin rape trial hears from alleged victim of NRL star
The St George Illawarra NRL player has pleaded not guilty to aggravated sexual assault at his Wollongong trial
Australian Associated Press
Published:19:36 Tue 3 November 2020
NRL star Jack de Belin raped a teenager after ignoring her protests to stop undressing her and later asked why she was being “so emotional”, a jury has been told.
The St George Illawarra player, 29, and his friend Callan Sinclair, 23, have pleaded not guilty to the aggravated sexual assault of the woman, then 19, after meeting her in a Wollongong bar in December 2018.
Giving evidence on the opening day of the Wollongong district court trial, the woman said she thought the trio was headed to another club in the early hours of 9 December before de Belin led the group to a North Wollongong unit “to charge his phone”.
“I said I want to go home,” the woman told the jury. She initially told the men she’d wait outside for them before asking to use the bathroom, the court heard.
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While on the toilet in a bedroom ensuite, the woman said de Belin walked in naked and began showering – causing her to exit quickly.
She was met in the dark bedroom by a clothed Sinclair, whom she’d kissed earlier in the night. De Belin then untied her top from behind and shoved her on the bed, she told the jury.
Covering herself and saying “no, stop” as the men said “show us your tits”, the woman said she felt the footballer remove the rest of her clothes.
“He split my legs open and put himself on top of me with his hand around my neck and resting on my collarbone,” she said. Then he had intercourse, she told the jury.
The woman couldn’t recall how long that sexual encounter lasted, testifying 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.
De Belin and Sinclair alternated positions while “cheering each other on”, the woman told the court. “I just had tears out of my eyes the whole time.”
When Sinclair left the room, de Belin again assaulted her, and she screamed “stop” due to the pain, the court was told.
After de Belin finished, the woman told Sinclair she didn’t want “any of this to happen”, she said on Tuesday. De Belin asked why she was “being so emotional” and said she couldn’t “tell anyone about this”, she told the jury.
The trio caught an Uber back into Wollongong’s CBD with de Belin handing the woman $50 “for the Uber and to keep your mouth shut”, she said.
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The jury is expected to see CCTV from the bar and Wollongong’s CBD, including the woman dancing and playing with de Belin’s hat. Sinclair and the woman, who knew each other previously, kissed at the bar with the woman describing it as “pecking” and “nothing serious”.
In his opening address to the jury, crown prosecutor David Scully said the “friendliness” ended when the trio got back to the unit.
The woman complained to friends, family and work colleagues before making a formal police statement and agreeing to a medical examination on the afternoon of 9 December. Her DNA was later found in the unit.
The jury would hear intercepted phone calls involving the accused men in which they effectively accepted sexual activity occurred but they said it was consensual, Scully said.
De Belin’s mother and sister, as well as a person connected with St George, may give evidence during the trial, the footballer’s barrister, David Campbell SC, said. He asked the jury to keep an open mind because things that at first appeared “cogent, strong and accurate” could seem different as more pieces of the puzzle emerged.
The footballer did not dispute sexual activity took place, Campbell said. “The issue he is raising is: everything happened with the consent of those involved.”
Craig Smith SC, for Sinclair, echoed the statements about consent and stated 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 trial continues.
