16.04.2021
3 min read

Court hears woman explain reason for laughter after alleged Jack de Belin rape

CCTV footage played to the jury shows the teenager laughing with the NRL footballer soon after the alleged rape.
Luke CostinBy Luke Costin

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A women’s laughter and other displays of happiness soon after she was allegedly raped by NRL footballer Jack de Belin is not an indication she was happy to be with the men, she’s told a jury.

The woman alleges the St George Illawarra forward, 30, and his friend Callan Sinclair, 23, sexually assaulted her multiple times inside a unit in December 2018.

Both men have pleaded not guilty to all charges against them, saying all sexual acts inside the North Wollongong bedroom with the then-19-year-old were consensual.

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A Sydney District Court jury on Friday viewed CCTV of the trio on their return to the Wollongong CBD shortly after the incident.

De Belin’s lawyer David Campbell SC suggested the woman’s laughter and other behaviour, as the trio walked past Saturday night revellers, didn’t give “any depiction” of a woman who didn’t want to be there.

But the woman, who cannot be identified, said she played along and laughed because she felt she needed to until she found time to “get away”.

“In that environment, when I’m feeling uneasy and people are there, I try not to make out I need help,” she said.

NRL footballer Jack de Belin attends court. Credit: AAP

She rejected the assertion she was laughing “quite hysterically” or that she’d earlier told the court “a tale” about the night in question.

“No, I have not lied,” she said.

“I may not have recollected everything but I went through a traumatic experience.”

The jury is viewing recordings of the questions and answers, delivered at a previous trial that didn’t conclude.

Attention was also drawn to CCTV footage shot at Wollongong bar Mr Crown, before de Belin, Sinclair and the woman headed to the nearby unit.

Rugby league player Callan Sinclair leaves the Downing Centre District Court in Sydney, Monday, April 12. Credit: AAPIMAGE

The court has heard the woman kissed Sinclair at the bar but felt the kisses were “fun”, not “passionate”.

After viewing the CCTV, she accepted she’d also made a V sign towards Sinclair, indicating oral sex, and allowed him to touch her breasts.

Mr Campbell said it was “a clear indication ... of intimate affection” between the pair.

She said she couldn’t recall it and asserted she was not and “still not” attracted to Sinclair.

The Crown alleges the woman took a taxi to the unit with the men under the misapprehension they were all headed to another bar.

Jack de Belin is facing a retrial over allegations he and another man raped a woman in 2018. Credit: AAP

Despite her protests inside the unit, de Belin was “determined” to have sex with the woman and “was not going to take no for an answer”, the prosecutor has said.

The woman says she cried and “just let it happen” as the men cheered each other and took turns in various positions.

But Mr Campbell says the complainant’s evidence has a “fundamental issue of credibility” and the men had “forcefully, emphatically, repeatedly and consistently” denied anything untoward.

Sinclair faces five charges of aggravated sexual assault, while de Belin faces four.

A fifth charge against de Belin - aggravated sexual assault in company - relates to the first instance of intercourse in which he allegedly also intentionally or recklessly inflicted actual bodily harm.

The trial resumes on Monday.

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