http://www.leaguehq.com.au/news/new...hat-he-wasdoing/2009/03/10/1236447217385.html
Diabetes defence: Stewart could argue he didn't know what he was doing
Brad Walter, Julie Robotham and Les Kennedy | March 11, 2009
THE effect of excessive alcohol on Brett Stewart's Type 1 diabetes may be used as a defence against allegations he sexually abused a 17-year-old woman.
After a four-day investigation, Stewart was last night charged with the sexual assault of the teenager just hours after Manly's alcohol-fuelled season launch last Friday afternoon.
Despite not yet having the results of DNA testing Stewart submitted to at Dee Why Police Station in the early hours of Saturday morning, there was considered to be sufficient evidence to charge him.
The teenager who made the complaint also provided a DNA sample and was examined by a doctor at Royal North Shore Hospital after claiming she had been sexually assaulted by Stuart about 8pm on Friday night. It took just five minutes from the time of the first telephone call to the Emergency 000 hotline at 8.01pm to when police officers arrived on scene at North Manly on Friday night.
One of the callers told the operator of an altercation involving "Brett Stewart".
Those who saw Stewart on the night said he was intoxicated and he has told friends he can't remember what happened.
A leading expert in diabetes, Paul Zimmet, the emeritus director of Melbourne's Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, said people with Type 1 diabetes were at risk of having a hypoglycemic attack - or blood-sugar crash - as a result of excessive drinking, especially on an empty stomach. The effects of drinking could then compound the problem, by impairing the person's ability to recognise the symptoms of the drop in blood sugar levels - which include changes to sensory perception and consciousness.
Alcohol could make the liver more sensitive to insulin, increasing the likelihood of hypoglycemia, Professor Zimmet said. But this depended on individual factors, as well as the form of alcohol and the circumstances in which it was consumed.
Drinking a lot of beer could push blood sugar up because it was heavy in carbohydrates, Professor Zimmet said.
People with type 1 diabetes - the childhood onset form that makes up one in 10 cases and is not linked to obesity or lack of exercise - were advised they could safely drink alcohol in the same quantities recommended for other adults, he said. But they were advised to eat carbohydrate foods such as pasta or bread before or during drinking, to counterbalance the effect on blood sugar.
His condition would make it possible for Stewart to argue, "he didn't know what he was doing and didn't eat properly," said Professor Zimmet.
Stewart has worked as an ambassador for support and advocacy group Diabetes Australia NSW, which yesterday said in a statement on its website that it was surprised by the allegation. "He has been active in supporting a number of our events and his conduct has always been exemplary," the statement read.
A spokeswoman said the organisation would not comment further pending the police investigation, and she would not say whether the group would consider cutting ties with Stewart if he was charged.
In another development yesterday, Paul Durazza, the Sea Eagle sponsor allegedly punched by Anthony Watmough at Manly's season launch last Friday, says the footballer was harassing his daughter at the time.
Yesterday Durazza, who runs a structural landscaping and property maintenance business, rang 2UE after Manly co-owner Max Delmege was interviewed and defended Watmough as a "great guy".
Durazza said he saw Watmough hassling his 21-year-old daughter at the sponsors' function at the Manly Wharf Hotel. "[She is] a very attractive lady and didn't need to be spoken to how she was being spoken to," Durazza said.
"He was just very rude and that's what sparked me to get up and then he hit me."
He said the incident, which has been reported as a slap, was more serious. "He punched me. It wasn't a slap. It was a punch," he said .
