Promising young rugby player guilty of child sex offences

A promising young rugby player broke down crying and hyperventilating after learning his fate over a string of child sex charges.

Once a promising rugby league player, Connor Lind shook violently in place before falling into his seat, head in his hands as a jury read out their final verdict in a child sex trial that spanned weeks.

The 23-year-old faced a trial in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court last month, having pleaded not guilty to a string of allegations that he engaged in sexual acts with two girls, aged 14 and 15.

After a week of deliberation by the jury, Lind sat tall as it returned the first verdict - not guilty - but collapsed into his hands crying as it returned three more findings of guilty.

Connor Lind leaving court after learning the verdicts. Picture: NewsWire / Max Mason-Hubers

When the fifth and final verdict was returned, he collapsed into his seat.

During the trial, Lind admitted to kissing the 14-year-old but said he cut off physical contact before it became sexual.

After deliberating for eight days, Lind was on Tuesday found not guilty of a single count sexual intercourse with a child, but guilty of two further charges of sexual intercourse with a child and a single charge of intentionally touching a child.

After further deliberation the jury came to a verdict of not guilty for a fifth charge of sexual intercourse with a child which related to a separate complainant.

Connor Lind stood trail in the NSW District Court. Picture: NewsWire/Max Mason-Hubers.

The Crown prosecution had alleged Lind was 19 when he engaged in anal, oral, and digital sex with the 14-year-old alleged victim.

The girl was under the age of consent of 16 at the time but Lind, in his evidence before the jury, denied the acts ever occurred.

Lind told the jury he had cuddled the minor and they had kissed “a few times”.

He told the jury he became aroused during the cuddling but he “cut it off straight away”.

“Look we need to stop now, it’s getting too heated,” Lind recalled telling the underage girl.

He also claimed he wanted to respect the girl’s wishes to not have sex before marriage.

He said in his evidence that he set clear boundaries because he knew the girl was too young to consent to sexual activity.

“I said nothing sexual could happen because of the age difference,” Lind told the jury.

He told the court he didn’t reveal his canoodling with the underage girl because he “felt pretty embarrassed” about his attraction to “someone who’s a bit younger than me”.

Connor Lind. Picture: NewsWire / Max Mason-Hubers

Lind was found not guilty by the jury of having anal sex with the girl, but guilty of allegations he’d had his hand on her stomach and inner thigh and in a separate incident had her perform oral sex.

After further deliberation the jury came to a final verdict of not guilty in relation to allegations Lind put his hand down the pants of a separate 15-year-old girl, without her consent, while sitting in his car at Dee Why beach.

Lind denied the allegation.

A detention application made by the prosecution on Tuesday afternoon was not successful and the matter was adjourned for sentence in November.

The court was told while a full time custodial sentence was “more likely than not”, it was not a guarantee.

Judge John Pickering also noted that the first charge involving allegations of anal sex, had Lind been found guilty, would have been a “more serious example”.

Originally published as Promising young rugby player guilty of child sex offences