NRL player Zane Musgrove appeals conviction for assaulting woman saying it cost him $570,000
Two NRL players, convicted of assaulting a 23-year-old woman on a Sydney dancefloor, will learn the fate of their appeal on Friday. One of the men, Zane Musgrove, has revealed the implications of the case on his career.
Police & Courts
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NRL star Zane Musgrove wants his conviction of assaulting a woman overturned partly because he lost more than half a million dollars when the Wests Tigers pulled the pin on his footy contract.
An appeal court has heard teams of lawyers debate why a woman danced or “shimmied” after both Musgrove and another player, Liam Coleman, allegedly assaulted her on a dance floor.
Musgrove and Coleman were captured on security cameras speaking and dancing with two women at the Coogee Bay Hotel in November 2018.
Musgrove allegedly kissed one 23-year-old woman and touched her breast while Coleman, son of Rabbitohs great Craig Coleman, allegedly grabbed the woman’s breasts on the same night.
The sportsmen were ultimately convicted of assault with an act of indecency in October last year and put on 12-month good behaviour bonds.
They launched immediate appeals which were heard together in the NSW District Court this week.
Musgrove’s barrister, Philip English, told the court his player had just left South Sydney Rabbitohs to join with the Tigers on a lucrative contract when he allegedly assaulted the woman.
The NRL refused to register that contract after he was charged, the court heard. Once he was convicted the league only allowed him back on the field if he agreed to go to counselling.
The effect, Mr English said, was that Musgrove renegotiated with the Tigers for a contract worth at least $573,000 less and was under constant “supervision” by the league.
“His current contract has match payments and, because of the (COVID-19) virus going around, he’s missing match payments so he’s in even worse shape now,” the lawyer said.
The affidavit from Musgrove’s manager, which revealed the contractual impact, also explained how the conviction meant Musgrove was unlikely to be able to secure a UK visa to play in the Super League.
The lawyer described the fallout from the conviction as “significant extra curial punishment”.
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Judge David Arnott spent much of the two-day hearings being taken through grainy, black-and-white CCTV which captured the interaction between the players and the alleged victim.
The police prosecutor, on Tuesday, said the alleged assault was at the “lower end” of the spectrum. But, he said, allegations the men grabbed the woman’s breast, hips and buttocks while Musgrove forced a tongue kiss on her were “not trivial” either.
Judge Arnott was asked to interpret a shake of the woman’s body in the footage after she was allegedly assaulted.
Prosecutors described it as a “shimmy”, saying the alleged victim didn’t know how to react to being assaulted by Musgrove.
Police also pointed out how the woman had raised her hands between herself and the men and had complained on the night to friends and security about her alleged attackers.
Musgrove’s lawyer argued the woman had, instead, kept dancing and made no attempt to extricate herself.
“She never said anything to him in relation to not stopping,” Mr English said.
“She never walked away, she appears to have done the opposite - which is to keep dancing.”
The court, earlier, heard Coleman’s lawyer argue the CCTV didn’t capture the assault because it didn’t happen.
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“No one else saw the touching of the breast,” Coleman’s barrister Philip Boulten SC said on Monday.
“The videotape doesn’t depict the event which is the subject of the charge. A lot will depend on what your honour makes of the CCTV footage.”
He said the evidence could not satisfy a court, beyond a reasonable doubt, that his client was guilty.
Judge Arnott is expected to make a finding on the appeal on Friday morning.