Storm official sanctioned over disgraced NRL player’s court case

An Aussie athlete has welcomed news an NRL club official has been sanctioned after her former NRL star ex-boyfriend was convicted.

Australian athlete Tay-Leiha Clark has welcomed sanctions that have been handed down to a Melbourne Storm psychologist surrounding disgraced former NRL player Curtis Scott’s trial.

Scott was in 2022 fined and sentenced to a 12-month community corrections order — but was spared time behind bars — when found guilty of twice assaulting Clark, a former long-jump athlete, who represented Australia at the Youth Olympics.

Scott was found guilty of three charges — assault occasioning actual bodily harm, common assault and stalk or intimidate with the intention of causing fear or physical harm.

Scott was also found guilty of verbally threatening Clark during a phone conversation in which he threatened to kill both her and himself.

Melbourne Storm psychologist Jacqui Louder has now been hit with restrictions by the national health watchdog after Clark reported the matter to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (APHRA) last year.

As first reported by News Corp, APHRA this week took action against Louder after accusations surrounding the testimony she gave in court in relation to the pair’s volatile, two-year relationship.

The complaint lodged by Clark claimed Louder was aware of the physical and verbal abuse she suffered and knew more than she had testified to the court.

Louder has worked as a sport and exercise psychologist at the Melbourne Storm since 2017 and AFL club Collingwood since 2018.

Tay-Leiha Clark and Curtis Scott: Photo: AAP and Getty.

According to the AHPRA website, the Psychology Board of Australia’s restrictions include that she must be supervised by another registered psychologist when “addressing the following consent, confidentiality, multiple relationships, conflicts of interest, maintenance of boundaries, recognising and managing concerns of domestic and family violence, and mandatory reporting obligations”.

According to The Daily Telegraph, the supervision sessions must be conducted weekly and stretch for at least one hour.

The Board has not listed an end date for the sanctions to be removed.

Clark on Twitter said she hopes the sanctions will help “the next young woman who was in my position”.

In an earlier post she wrote: “The Melbourne Storm Psychologist who I reported my abuse to back in 2018 was sanctioned by APHRA this week after almost a 12 month investigation. Let this be a reminder that silence and complicity have no place in the fight against domestic violence.”

Curtis Scott and Tay-Leiha Clark.

She was also forced to respond to a question from one Twitter user asking why she has not “let go” of the matter.

She responded: “I’d say this remains a pretty relevant conversation.

“If the topic of domestic violence makes you uncomfortable imagine how hard it is for victims who are affected every single day. Unfortunately DV will always be relevant to me after experiencing it first hand.”

Scott was granted a release from the final two years of his contract with the Storm and moved to Canberra in 2019 before he was sacked by the Raiders in 2021.

Scott attempted to have the convictions for assaulting Clark overturned in July, 2023. But the appeal failed with a judge finding his relationship with her was marked by “emotional abuse born out of jealousy”.

Magistrate Daniel Covington in 2022 found Scott guilty of domestic violence offences in two separate incidents.

Covington found Scott pushed Clark during an altercation at her parents’ home in Sylvania, causing injuries to her head, forearm and wrist.

Tay Clark with Curtis Scott. Source: Instagram

Instagram images of Australian triple jumper Tay Clark. Photo: https://www.instagram.com/tayjclarkk/?hl=en

He also found that during a holiday at Lake Conjola on the NSW south coast, Scott charged into Clark, knocking her to the ground.

Scott was also found guilty of verbally threatening Ms Clark during a phone conversation in which he threatened to kill both her and himself and after which he deliberately drove his car into a tree.

Scott was cleared of other allegations, including that he choked Ms Clark during an argument on the night of the 2018 NRL grand final.

He was ordered to pay an $800 fine for the charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and a fine of $600 for the common assault charge.

With his rugby league career in tatters, Scott has since turned his attention to boxing where he has successfully knocked out AFL great Barry Hall and former NRL player Joey Leilua.

It was reported in December the NRL quietly rejected an approach from Scott where he asked to be granted permission to make a comeback.

News.com.au has contacted the Melbourne Storm for comment.

Originally published as Storm official sanctioned over disgraced NRL player’s court case