Nick Stevens thought bikini model was partner using a fake name
Former Carlton player Nick Stevens has been found not guilty of perjury after telling a jury he thought the woman he was sending more than 600 explicit text messages to was his partner using a fake name to try to catch him cheating.
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Former AFL bad boy Nick Stevens says he can now move on with his life after he was cleared of telling lies about his interactions with a racy bikini model.
A 12-person County Court jury took just over an hour yesterday to find him not guilty of perjury.
Stevens, 39, was always adamant he was telling the truth when in December 2014 he told a magistrate, under oath, he had never met a woman named Samantha Nash.
The former Carlton player made the statement when testifying at Ringwood Magistrates’ Court over an assault on his former partner, Laima McKenna, in which he was convicted and jailed.
He admitted he had exchanged more than 600 messages with Ms Nash in just 11 days — and even sent her sexually explicit photos and a video of himself committing a sex act. But he denied Ms Nash’s claims the pair had met in person.
Stevens said he thought the woman on the receiving end of his lurid text messages was Ms McKenna and her friends, using a fake name to try to catch him cheating.
Sordid details of his infidelities were exposed in the week-long trial, but his lawyer, Jason Gullaci, told the jury his “muppet” actions did not mean Stevens had committed perjury.
“You might take the view he’s not a great bloke … but this is not a court of morals,” Mr Gullaci said.
The jury’s verdict draws to an end a drawn-out court battle with many twists and turns.
In June last year, the case was thrown out of court after Magistrate Ross Maxted found the Office of Public Prosecutions had laid a deficient perjury charge.
In an embarrassing blunder by the prosecution, Mr Maxted ruled the charge did not comply with the law as it failed to state elements of the charge that Stevens’ conduct was “wilful and corrupt”.
But Director of Public Prosecutions, Kerri Judd, QC, refused to back down and made a “special decision” to file a direct indictment in the County Court.
The unusual move meant Stevens was forced to return to court to fight the allegations.
Leaving the court a free man, Stevens said he was “really excited about the result”.
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“I was always adamant I wasn’t guilty of the charges,” Stevens said. “It’s been five years of our life and I’m looking forward to moving on to bigger and better things.”
Stevens was given a reduced sentence from eight months’ jail to three months, with another three months suspended, and a $3000 fine after appealing his original sentence for attacking Ms McKenna.
He smashed her head into a wall and kicked her, telling her: “I’m going to beat you to within an inch of your life, c---. I’m going to kill you, you dumb c---”.