Sam Burgess fronts media ahead of preliminary final on Saturday
NRL star Sam Burgess has broken his silence over the Souths sexting scandal, while promoting Saturday night’s preliminary final against the Roosters.
NSW
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RABBITOHS star Sam Burgess has broken his silence over the sexting probe, revealing his wife Phoebe’s “deep upset” over salacious allegations while insisting “the truth” will come out.
The Premiership hero steeled himself at a packed press conference at Redfern Oval on Tuesday to face allegations naked snaps of his genitalia flashed in a videocall from his verified social media sparked a young woman to complain about lewd behaviour.
Gripping his hands tightly as flash bulbs popped, the big forward said: “I’m upset for my wife and my family, it’s been a tough process to go through, the family together … I’m fortunate that I’ve got a strong wife.
“I’ve got a wife who loves me, I’ve got a great family, great friends and support around me to get through these allegations that have been made.”
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Asked how he felt about the allegations that screengrabs of his naked torso and genitalia were taken during videochats while he was out with teammates celebrating a victory against the Warriors in Auckland in May, he paused.
He said: “We’re all human, you do feel it, but I’ve had experiences in my life before, serious emotions I’ve had to deal with and football’s always been great for me.
“I’m compartmentalising those feelings, I’ve got a great team and people around me at what’s been a tricky time.”
Burgess revealed he had not yet contacted his lawyers over the sexting scandal and said the Souths and NRL Integrity Unit inquiries will unveil the truth.
“There’s an inquiry going on and I’m happy for the truth to come out … that’s fine.”
When asked what the truth was, he repeated: “There is an inquiry going on and I’m following the process.
“I’d like it completed as soon as possible, within 48 hours, or 24 hours.
“Once the process is over, I’ll speak to my lawyer then. There’s a lot of serious things going on at the minute, the process that’s going on here.
“I’m not angry, what hurts me the most is seeing my wife upset about what’s out there.
“I’m completely happy to go through the process and be as open and honest and hope it’s resolved sooner rather than later.
“I just want to protect my family over this whole thing, I’ve got a daughter and my wife’s heavily pregnant, I want them to be safe and happy.”
He added: “I’m not running away and hiding. Until the inquiry I can’t talk about it in detail as I’ll get in trouble.
“I’ve got a great team, great wife, my brothers are in the team, my mother and father-in-law are great.
“We all hit strife … when I’m out there I’ll be thinking about nothing but football.
“My poor family don’t have the distraction I have.
The Daily Telegraph revealed screenshots taken of Burgess’ Facebook Messenger show a naked man baring his genitalia from the torso down and another man with his pants down flashing his backside.
The men’s faces cannot be seen.
South Sydney refused to confirm which Rabbitohs were the naked players but chief executive Blake Solly said he had held “constructive and helpful” discussions with the 23-year-old woman, who first contacted Souths four months ago saying she felt violated and disgusted by the online encounter.
Mr Solly said the investigation would be undertaken with the “utmost confidentiality and respect”.
“The club will deal with the complaint thoroughly and the club will move as quickly as we possibly can to conclude the investigation,” he said.
Records obtained by The Telegraph show an exchange of messages on May 26 between Burgess’ social media accounts and the woman, as well as several screenshot images showing Burgess and some of his Souths teammates during a video chat.
The woman claimed the exchange came after she sent the England international a message on Instagram to alert him when she found a fake profile of him on the dating app Tinder while on an overseas trip.
The woman claims that Burgess replied from his verified account: “You swipe right?” then thanked her and told her: “The boys want to face time.”
Images then taken from the videochat show several South Sydney players, including Burgess, relaxing in what appears to be a restaurant after their big win over the Warriors earlier in the day. One shows a man’s bare backside.
Later that night the woman says she received a series of video calls from a hotel room using a personal Facebook account that was in Burgess’ name.
In one screenshot seen by The Telegraph, a man standing up pulls down his underwear to expose his penis. In another Instagram image, a man is lying on his hotel bed in just his underwear.
Towards the end of the exchange, the woman receives a two-word Facebook message: “Too much.”
Records show when a call went unanswered, another attempt was made within minutes.
Married father-of-one Burgess, who has recently signed a new $3.2 million four-year contract with Souths, declined to comment when approached at his home in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
When shown the images and asked “Are these photos of you?” he responded, “There’s obviously an ongoing investigation going into it … no comment.”
The woman contacted The Telegraph after she said that repeated follow-up emails to the club demanding action had fallen on deaf ears.
Rabbitohs confirmed that the woman’s initial email — fired off the day after the exchange — was received by the club’s football operations manager Brock Schafer on June 1.
In that email, Mr Schafer assures the woman the matter was being taken “seriously” and the club “will work to understand what has occurred”.
However, subsequent emails from the woman on June 5 and August 31 were never responded to.
Her emails got treated as spam by the Rabbitohs computer system.
“I feel quite disappointed that my email has not been responded too (sic) since a few months ago,” she wrote in August.
“I find it disgusting how these boys think they can get away with this crap.”