‘Ruining his career’: Rugby player’s alleged sexual acts with underage girl
An underage girl who alleges she engaged in sexual acts with a rugby union player has denied they were restricted to hugging, a court has been told.
WARNING: Graphic content
An underage teenage girl who alleges she engaged in sexual acts with a promising rugby union player and cheerleader has denied she only hugged him in his bedroom, a court has been told.
Connor Lind, 23, is facing trial in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court, where he has pleaded not guilty to a string of charges and denied engaging in sexual acts with two underage teenage girls.
Mr Lind has pleaded not guilty to four counts of having sexual intercourse with a child and one count of intentionally sexually touching a child.
The Crown prosecution has alleged he engaged in anal, oral and digital sex with one girl who was 14 at the time.
He has also denied putting his hand down the pants of the same girl while on the couch at his parents’ house at Allambie Heights on Sydney’s northern beaches.
The girl was in between grades eight and nine at the time of the alleged offences, the court was told.
Mr Lind, through his barrister Lisa-Claire Hutchinson, has denied having any sexual contact with either of the girls, the court has been told.
The jury was on Thursday played a video of the then 14-year-old’s prerecorded evidence.
Under cross-examination from Ms Hutchinson, she was asked whether she and Mr Lind would hug each other inside his room.
“Yes, we would hug each other,” the girl said.
“Connor says nothing sexual happened in that room,” Ms Hutchinson asked.
“False,” the girl replied.
The court has been told that Mr Lind argued he told the girl he “didn’t want to risk ruining his career” because of their age difference.
Mr Lind also claims he told the girl that “rugby players have only the worst of themselves shown in the media”.
The girl said, in her evidence to the court, that she did not recall those conversations.
The jury was on Thursday also played a video of a taped police interview with the girl in which she detailed the sexual acts she alleges she took part in with Mr Lind.
The court has been told that Mr Lind is alleged to have had anal sex with the girl inside his room.
Asked by an officer if they had anal sex with Mr Lind, she said: “Just once, it hurt too much.”
The court was told she later told him: “We’re not doing that again.”
The girl told officers she did not have penile-vaginal sex with Mr Lind because of her religious beliefs and she was waiting for marriage but at the time consented to anal sex because in her mind it didn’t “count”.
She later said in her evidence that her attitudes to what constituted “sex” had since changed.
The girl also told officers that she performed oral sex on Mr Lind inside the bathroom of his house.
The girl – who cannot be identified for legal reasons – also detailed an incident in which she alleges he put his hand down her pants, beneath her underwear, while they were sitting on the couch together watching television.
The court was told the event was witnessed by another person who was in the room. The other person said “Jesus Christ” and left, the girl told officers.
During her evidence to the court, she said she did not remember the incident.
“I’ve blocked it out of my head for the most part,” the girl said, adding she believed it was a coping mechanism.
The court has been told Mr Lind was between 19 and 20 at the time of the alleged offences.
He is also alleged to have put his hand down the pants of another 15-year-old girl at Dee Why Beach.
The court was told that one count of having sexual intercourse with a child relates to an allegation he kissed the girl before putting his hand down her pants while they were sitting in his car.
Mr Lind was arrested at Sutherland Police Station in August 2021 and does not deny knowing that the girls were 14 and 15 at the time.
He denied engaging in any sexual acts with the both complainants, the court was told.
The trial before Judge John Pickering continues on Friday.
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