Kurt De Luis: Blacktown Sea Eagles footballer faces court accused of rape
Aspiring NRL player Kurt De Luis has fronted court charged with sexually assaulting a teenager at a party in his Oatlands home last July with a number of NRL players in attendance.
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Aspiring NRL player Kurt De Luis has fronted court charged with sexually assaulting a teenager at a party in his Oatlands home last July where other NRL players attended.
At Parramatta District Court on Tuesday, a witness, policewoman and biologist — who said DNA evidence showed more than two men were involved in the sexual assault — were cross examined during the trial.
The former Blacktown Sea Eagles forward was charged with two counts of sexually touching a person without consent and three counts of sexual intercourse without consent.
Witness and footballer Jacob Esau was constantly questioned about whether he turned off the light in the downstairs bathroom the alleged incident occurred in the early hours of Saturday, July 20. He denied switching off the lights and shutting the door before De Luis entered the downstairs room. Mr Esau is not facing any charges.
He told the court after leaving the bathroom he went to the kitchen where he saw Parramatta Eels player Reed Mahoney but he did not recall speaking to him that night.
Defence barrister Michael Smith asked if Mr Mahoney had spoken to the alleged victim and her friend at the house.
“I honestly can’t remember,’’ Mr Esau said.
After leaving the bathroom, Mr Esau followed the two women outside where he asked the alleged victim why she was crying.
“All I remember is she said ‘I thought it was you, I thought it was you’,’’ he told the court.
Mr Smith suggested Mr Esau wanted to distance himself from De Luis because “you didn’t want to get dragged into whatever happened in the bathroom after you left it because … you didn't want to get blamed for something that’s not your fault, correct?
“You had jumped to the conclusion that she had been raped.’’
Mr Esau later told the court De Luis told him the sex was consensual when he confronted him.
Mr Esau agreed when questioned by Mr Smith about him being so angry that former Parramatta player Bevan French had to “intervene to calm him down’’.
“I remember I was really angry but I can’t remember if it was upstairs or downstairs,’’ Mr Esau said.
There is no suggestion Mr Mahoney and Mr French were involved in the incident.
But Mr Smith told the court Mr Esau reacted that way and spoke to police twice — the first time at the front of Mr French’s house and a longer, 45-minute interview at a McDonald’s eatery — to cover himself because he digitally penetrated the alleged victim.
“You wanted to make sure that nobody was ever going to make allegations about your behaviour and that’s why you continued to lie about having one or more fingers inside the girl’s vagina,’’ Mr Smith said.
“I’m suggesting to you, you did give the version to police because you didn’t want to get dragged into it.’’
Mr Esau disagreed and Judge Sophia Beckett later told Mr Smith: “I can’t see how it’s relevant’’.
Forensic biologist Ivana Yvonne Sesardic said DNA evidence was collected from more than one man on the complainant.
“There’s at least two contributors,’’ she said.
“I can’t rule out there’s more than two but there’s no clear evidence of that.’’
During cross examination, Senior Constable Haley Bennett told the court fingerprints were taken all over the house.
The jury was also shown a photograph of fingerprints of the shower.
The trial continues tomorrow.