Alleged rape victim sent a desperate one-word text message to a friend after she 'slipped away from NRL star Jack De Belin in a nightclub line after her ordeal', court hears
Jack de Belin's alleged rape victim messaged 'help' to a friend after slipping away from the NRL star in a nightclub line, a jury has heard.
The St George Illawarra player, 29, and Shell Cove man Callan Sinclair, 23, have pleaded not guilty to the aggravated sexual assault of a woman in a North Wollongong unit in December 2018.
Both men say all three were consenting but the woman claims they ignored her protests and cries.
The Wollongong District Court jury has heard the trio caught an Uber to the city's CBD and joined a nightclub line after the alleged assault.
But the woman, then 19, quickly walked away from the line minutes later when some of the men's friends arrived.
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NRL star Jack de Belin's alleged rape victim messaged 'help' to a friend after slipping away from the footy player in a nightclub line, a jury has heard
Both de Belin and co-accused Callan Sinclair say all three were consenting but the woman claims they ignored her protests and cries
After getting around a corner, she opened Instagram and messaged a male friend she knew was also out partying, the court was told.
'Help,' the message read.
When asked, she told the friend she was 'not that OK'.
But the court heard she declined to elaborate, saying 'probably something I can't tell you anyways'.
'For someone to just hear it straight up, it's quite horrific,' she told the court on Wednesday.
'What had happened to me was quite horrific and I thought I couldn't tell him at that time.'
Co-accused Callan Sinclair leaves the Wollongong District Court on Wednesday
That friend's housemate then reached out on Snapchat. He'd seen the woman with de Belin and Sinclair before the alleged rape.
'The guys you saw me with just abused me,' she messaged him.
The woman told the court she turned down an offer to spend the night at the friend's home, and another to smoke weed with a third person she'd messaged.
'I ended up going home to bed and crying myself to sleep,' she said.
De Belin and Sinclair are accused of 'cheering each other on' while assaulting the tearful woman, who said they ignored her protests.
The footballer 'doesn't and never has' disputed sexual activity took place but says it was consensual, his barrister David Campbell SC told the jury on Tuesday.
De Belin's friend Callan Sinclair is also charged over the alleged rape of the 19-year-old
Craig Smith SC, for Sinclair, told the jury his client didn't sexually assault the teenager.
'There is evidence both before and after that activity that is consistent with that activity being consensual activity,' he said.
The trial continues.