Sacked football trainer Kenneth Campagnolo accused of sexual assault

A sacked Goulburn Valley football trainer, who once took on the AFL in a discrimination case, has been accused of sexual assault.

Ken Campagnolo has been accused of sexual assault at Benalla and Mansfield.

A former soldier and football trainer, who once mounted a discrimination claim against the AFL, has been accused of historic sexual assault.

Kenneth Frank Campagnolo, 58, has been accused of sexual assault in 2000 and 2020, including the indecent assault of a man at Mansfield almost a quarter of a century ago.

He was charged on that matter by Benalla Sex Offences and Child Abuse detectives on May 25, 2023.

A few months later, in October, Mr Campagnolo was also charged with two more recent counts of sexual assault, alleged to have occurred at Benalla in September 2020.

The former Bonnie Doon football trainer faced the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court for a contested hearing solo, telling Magistrate Stephen Ballek “(Legal Aid) won’t tell the truth, they won’t tell the facts of the case”.

Mr Campagnolo, a former firefighter, also told the court he was worried about the matter being heard in the state’s capital, after the previous hearing had been heard in the the Shepparton Magistrates’ Court.

“Having it heard in Melbourne is totally different to having heard rurally,” he said.

However Mr Ballek disagreed, saying many magistrates covered both metropolitan and regional courts across many jurisdictions.

Mr Campagnolo told the court he was worried about the matter being heard in Melbourne.

The court heard a total of 10 witnesses would give evidence.

Speaking to the court, Mr Campagnolo alleged one of the witnesses had previously been caught “lying under oath”.

When it came to light there was media interested in the matter, Mr Campagnolo said there “had been a (media) circus around him” since “Jeff Kennett referred to me as a pedophile”.

That arose from discrimination claims against the Bonnie Doon Football and Netball Club —

where he was a volunteer trainer for 678 games — and the AFL in 2008 and 2009.

The claim against the league was struck out, but the matter provoked a gay rights storm when former state premier Jeff Kennett backed the football club over the sacking and compared the idea of Mr Campagnolo massaging junior footballers to having a pedophile trainer.

The claim against the club was found to be proven in 2010 but the Victorian Civil and Administration Tribunal member Anna Dea dismissed the complaint of victimisation and declined to take any further action.

In 2009 and again in 2011, Mr Campagnolo also claimed he was repeatedly called homophobic slurs including a “p------” and bullied about his sexuality for more than a decade by six colleagues at the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) at Mansfield but both were dismissed or struck out in VCAT hearings.

Mr Ballek adjourned the matter to February 10 next year for a contested hearing which was expected to last at least five days.