Jack de Belin, Callan Sinclair trial: Victim in tears during alleged assault
NRL player Jack de Belin allegedly grabbed a 19-year-old woman around the neck after she told him she wanted to “go home” and repeatedly had sex with her, a court has heard.
Police & Courts
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Jack de Belin allegedly gripped a woman’s throat so hard she said she “felt like I was going to pass out” as he sexually assaulted her, a District Court trial of the NRL star and his co-accused heard today.
The woman at the centre of allegations against de Belin, 29, and Callan Sinclair, 23, gave detailed evidence of the abuse alleged to have taken place in a Wollongong unit on December 8, 2018.
She said de Belin emerged naked from an ensuite into the bedroom before undoing her top and pushing her onto the bed.
“As he pushed me onto the bed he said ‘show me your rack, show me your boobs,’ … I said no,” the woman said, giving evidence by audiovisual link from a remote location away from Wollongong District Court.
The woman, who said she repeatedly told the men to stop and she wanted to go home, said she lay covering her breasts as de Belin unzipped her pants. She said he then removed her underwear.
“He, um, split my legs open and put himself on top of me with his hand around my neck and resting on my collar bone,” she said.
He began having intercourse with her, she said.
“I couldn’t do anything about it, no one was listening to me. I had tears coming out of my eyes,” she said.
Both men have pleaded not guilty to five counts of aggravated sexual assault and their lawyers said each maintain the sex was consensual.
Sinclair had allegedly been watching the pair before undressing and allegedly beginning to also assault the woman.
“Come have a go,” de Belin allegedly said to Sinclair, before also saying “nice Cal”.
“By that time I was just going dead and numb inside then I ended up letting it just happen,” the woman said.
“I only weigh 51 kilos, they’re twice the size of me.”
She described how the men allegedly took turns abusing her orally.
“He did exactly the same thing as Jack de Belin did, he grabbed my head and was thrusting in and out,” she said.
She told the court Sinclair went to the bathroom and got moisturiser before attempting, unsuccessfully, to abuse her anally.
Under questioning from Crown prosecutor Dave Scully SC, she said Sinclair then left and got in the shower while de Belin continued abusing her.
“I had my head turned to the side I didn’t even look at him,” the woman said.
She said de Belin picked her up and moved her to a desk where he momentarily assaulted her anally but she screamed at him to stop and he did. She said he then threw her back onto the bed and placed his hand back around her throat.
“By this stage he wasn’t saying anything but when he was choking me, I felt like I was going to pass out,” she said.
“I was saying no earlier before … so why would I say stop now, it wasn’t going to work.”
The court heard that after de Belin finished, the woman claimed he said to her, “why are you so emotional?”
“And I said ‘I’m not’ … he was the one in charge and by that time I was very scared for my safety and so I tried to act tough and say ‘no I’m not’ but deep down I was really scared for myself,” she said.
She said the men asked if she could order an Uber to a nightclub which she did in the hope she could then get away from them.
“When I told them I ordered the Uber to Heyday (nightclub) they told me we’re going wherever you’re going,” she said.
In the Uber she said de Belin tried to pay her to stay quiet about the events of the evening.
“He goes here’s $50 for the Uber and to keep your mouth shut.”
She said the three of them ended up in a line at the Fever nightclub when a group of de Belin’s friends approached and began a conversation.
“Because they weren’t looking at me, that gave me the opportunity to get away,” she said.
“They were like ‘where are you going?’ and I just didn’t respond.”
The following day, December 9, the court heard the woman’s manager at work recommended she go to police when she heard the allegations.
Sinclair got word the woman was making the accusations and allegedly messaged her through a friend’s Facebook account saying “everything was consensual”.
“It was a good night,” he allegedly wrote.
A later medical assessment of the woman allegedly showed bruises to her neck and chest.
The woman said she met the earlier that night at Wollongong’s Mr Crown establishment when the city was busy for the it’s annual Santa pub crawl event.
She said she had met Sinclair some years earlier but had never met de Belin.
On their way to the next nightclub, the woman said de Belin directed the tuk tuk driver to go instead to his cousin’s apartment nearby.
The woman said she only went inside because she needed to use the bathroom.
The trial continues.
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