Jack de Belin, Callan Sinclair trial: Victim wrote men ‘abused me sexually’
A woman wrote in a message to a friend that NRL star Jack de Belin and co-accused Callan Sinclair “just f***ing abused me sexually”, a District Court trial has heard.
Police & Courts
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Jack de Belin’s barrister has accused the woman who said the NRL star raped her of lying because CCTV appeared to show her laughing with the pair after the abuse.
The woman was cross-examined on her second day in the witness chair at the District Court trial of State of Origin player de Belin, 29, and his friend Callan Sinclair, 23. Both men have pleaded not guilty to five counts of aggravated sexual assault.
The woman has given detailed evidence the pair allegedly took turns to repeatedly sexually assault her despite her pleas to stop, in a Wollongong apartment on December 8, 2018.
“The guys you saw me with just f***ing abused me sexually,” she messaged to a friend once she got home after the ordeal.
She said she then cried herself to sleep.
De Belin’s defence barrister David Campbell SC challenged the woman’s evidence of what happened after the alleged assault. She said she took an Uber with the men to central
Wollongong and walked a short distance, in front of the two men, to a nightclub where she finally managed to get away from them.
“We started walking to Fever (nightclub) because I couldn’t get away from them,” she told the court in her initial evidence.
Mr Campbell said “you must have been feeling awful”.
“Yes I didn’t feel really good at this point” the woman responded.
Mr Campbell then played CCTV to the court in which he said the woman was laughing and appeared to be enjoying herself as she walked between the Uber and the club with the two men.
“It does not depict a woman who was walking ahead of the other two looking as if she was in a position she could not get away from,” Mr Campbell said.
“I said I was pretty sure I was walking in front,” the woman responded.
“You can see that you are laughing, and quite hysterically so,” Mr Campbell said.
“That wasn’t hysterically,” the woman said. “When I’m feeling uneasy I try not to make out that I need help so, yeah, I played along.”
Mr Campbell said “I suggest, if you’d been violated in the way you say, a half hour before … you wouldn’t be representing in a picture like that.”
When he claimed the woman had “told us a tale” about feeling unsafe the woman said “no I have not lied”.
The court also heard on Wednesday Sinclair found out about the allegations the woman was making to police the following day and wrote to her about the “repercussions”.
“Hey it’s Cal, I’ve heard some serious allegations about what happened last night, it’s concerning because there’s serious repercussions,” he wrote using a friend’s Facebook profile.
“Everything was consensual.
“It was a good night and I’m not sure why these rumours have come out.”
Lawyers for both men have told the trial they do not deny sex took place with the woman and maintain it was consensual.
The trial continues.
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