Ex-AFL footballer Daniel Menzel cleared of sex charges
Former Geelong and Sydney forward Daniel Menzel has been acquitted of sexually touching a woman he met at a nightclub.
Victoria
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One-time AFL footballer Daniel Menzel has been acquitted of two sexual touching charges after a woman who made the allegation was found to have given “troubling” evidence.
The former Sydney Swans and Geelong Cats player pleaded not guilty to unlawfully sexually touching the woman without her consent in November 29.
During a hearing at Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court, the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, previously claimed she was drugged after a night out with Mr Menzel.
The court was told he and the woman were partying at the Bondi Hotel where CCTV captured them being affectionate towards each other before the alleged touching occurred.
The pair went back to Mr Menzel’s house, where the woman claimed he pinned her down, kissed her and put his hands under her clothes without consent.
Mr Menzel previously told the court that after he stripped off and got into bed, the woman remained wearing clothes and talking to him at the end of the bed for about five minutes before her demeanour changed.
“She said ‘who are you? I don’t know who you are, I don’t know what’s going on’. I said ‘OK, what’s happening?’ and she said ‘I don’t know where I am’ and I said ‘I’ll run you through everything and explain what’s happened’.
“She had a stunned look on her face, it was very obvious. It made me concerned because I didn’t know what was happening.
“I asked if she was OK and she said ‘yes’ and then she asked if I was OK and she got up to the bed and got under the covers and cuddled up to me and said ‘it’s OK’.”
About 10 minutes later, the court was told the woman started kissing Mr Menzel again and he kissed her back before she “flicked a switch again”, questioned why he was touching her and pushed him off her.
The woman said “you’ve drugged me and you’re trying to rape me”, the court was told.
Mr Menzel said he told the woman he had never done drugs before and was not trying to rape her.
“I got really upset and I said ‘you’re a psycho, get out of my house, I’ve had enough’, and then she left my house,” he said.
Delivering judgment in the case on Monday, magistrate Michael Crompton told the court the case hinged on the reliability of the woman’s evidence.
He said parts of the evidence she gave were “troubling”.
The woman told the court she had used MDMA before the incident and had also been drinking, Mr Crompton said.
Her claim she had possibly been given a date rape drug was not supported by any chemical evidence and there were some things on the night the woman claimed she could remember and others she could not, the court was told.
Mr Crompton said Mr Menzel had good character and was entitled to rely upon that to support the presumption of innocence to which he was entitled.
The charges against Mr Menzel were dismissed.
He fronted court via audiovisual link from South Australia, where is now based and playing in the South Australian National Football League.
Mr Menzel’s AFL came to an end in 2019 after he played just seven games for the Swans, following a near decade-long stint with the Cats.
He played just 80 games across nine seasons because of multiple season-ending knee injuries and kicked 143 goals.
Originally published as Ex-AFL footballer Daniel Menzel cleared of sex charges
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