Parramatta Eels’ Reed Mahoney gives evidence in Kurt De Luis trial
Eels star Reed Mahoney called a woman a whore and told her and two other people to leave his house because he was worried coach Brad Arthur might think he had been partying with them, he told a court at the trial of his former housemate.
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Parramatta Eels star Reed Mahoney has given evidence at his former housemate Kurt De Luis’s rape trial, telling a court he had an argument with a woman, calling her a “whore”, as he did not yet know about the assault allegations.
At Parramatta District Court on Thursday, Mr Mahoney said he also told the woman and two other people to be quiet and leave while they were outside because he did not want Eels coach Brad Arthur to think he had spent the night partying with the strangers.
Mr Mahoney was giving evidence at the trial of De Luis, who has been charged with sexually assaulting an 18-year-old woman at his Oatlands house in the early hours of July 20 last year. He has pleaded not guilty.
During cross examination, Mr Mahoney, who is not facing any charges, said he made his way downstairs from his upstairs bedroom, when he heard a woman moaning in the downstairs bathroom.
He told a court he saw another woman on the lounge and a man in the kitchen who were there following a party.
He told the court he was preparing to go to a cafe before heading to the Old Saleyards Reserve at North Parramatta for training when he saw Jacob Esau, the complainant and another woman arguing on the driveway.
Mr Mahoney said he didn’t want his coach to think he was partying or that he had a big night before training if he drove past the house.
“It was quite early and I live quite close to my work, and pretty much everyone drives past there to go to training and I was worried about my coach driving past (as) there were a group of people arguing,’’ he said.
“They were quite loud.”
Mr Mahoney told the court he was also angry because there were strangers in his home.
“I said ‘Shut the f*** up or leave’,’’ he told the court.
“The girl who was at the bathroom (the complainant) took a shot at me and said ‘Who do you think you are?’.
“I said ‘This is my house’. I said ‘You’re only upset because you got caught out from your mate for being a whore.’’
Mr Mahoney told the court he was unaware of the woman accusing De Luis of sexual assault when he approached the group but heard them “arguing something about a guy’’.
“I’m not really sure if they were fighting about Kurt,’’ he said.
The court heard how Mr Mahoney had gone to bed early that night because he had training the next day and was not aware people had gone back to his home.
Mr Mahoney, 22, initially declined to provide police with a statement “a few months later’’ during an investigation into allegations De Luis, 24, sexually assaulted the woman.
Instead, he contacted De Luis’s lawyer on advice from the Parramatta football club “because I’m not really sure of the legal side of things’’.
De Luis, a former Blacktown Sea Eagles forward in the Canterbury Cup competition,
has been charged with three counts of sexual intercourse without consent and two counts of sexual touching without consent in relation to the teenager, in the house he also shared with former Eel Bevan French.
A jury has heard how a group of five women and three unknown men descended on the double-storey home after a drug- and booze-fuelled night at Parramatta’s Albion Hotel, where De Luis snorted about 0.5g of cocaine and knocked back about 10 vodka lemonades. He had drunk about three beers earlier at the Rose and Crown Hotel.
He told the court he had consensual sex with a woman upstairs but was not satisfied so went downstairs where he heard moaning and entered the bathroom where Mr Esau was, with the lights on.
De Luis said the sex was consensual and the woman invited him to join her and Mr Esau by saying: “You should have asked, Cheeky” when he opened the bathroom door and “smirked’’ at him.
But Crown prosecutor John Sfinas accused De Luis of lying throughout the cross examination.
“You’re just making this up as you go along aren’t you?,’’ Mr Sfinas said.
“You took advantage of the situation because you wanted to finish (because you couldn’t upstairs) and you were going to finish at all costs because cocaine made you horny.
“You wanted to finish at any cost. You felt entitled to go into that bathroom because it was your house.’’
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Mr Sfinas also suggested to De Luis that he turned off the lights because he was intimidated by Mr Esau who has a larger physique compared with his 108kg frame.
The court heard how Mr Esau left the bathroom shortly after, leaving De Luis and the woman alone.
“You were trying to persuade her. She was resisting and you were trying to persuade her,’’ Mr Sfinas said.
This week, De Luis told the court the woman panicked when her friend — who he had sex with upstairs earlier — barged open the bathroom door and caught them together.
De Luis told the court he thought the women were later arguing on the driveway “because they slept with the same bloke’’ but said the woman was upset because she mistook him for another man.
Mr Sfinas said: “We all know that once (the woman) came out (of the bathroom) she was distressed and she was distressed not because of regretted sex but because of non-consensual sex.’’
De Luis denied the allegations.
The trial continues tomorrow.