NRL star Brett Stewart 'touched me'
* By Lisa Davies, Chief Court Reporter
* From: The Daily Telegraph
* September 15, 2010 2:41PM
THE teenager who claims rugby league star Brett Stewart indecently assaulted her was treated for "a psychotic illness'' before the alleged incident, a jury has heard.
The Crown today opened their case against the first-choice Manly fullback, saying the young woman's unfortunate psychiatric history did not mean she was an unreliable witness.
Prosecutor Peter Skinner told the jury the then 17-year-old, who cannot be identified, claims she was smoking a cigarette outside a North Manly block of units when an allegedly intoxicated Stewart arrived home from a season launch function on March 6, 2009.
She alleges the pair had a brief conversation in which Stewart asked her what she was doing.
She claims she told him she was "just having a cigarette'', to which he allegedly replied: "Yuck''.
Mr Skinner said he expected the young woman's evidence to be that Stewart then "cornered her against the mailbox wall ... and put his tongue in her mouth'' before "she pushed him away''.
This allegedly happened twice, before she then claims she "felt his hand touch the inside of her left leg ... felt his hand go up inside her'' underwear.
She soon went inside to tell her father what had allegedly happened, and he was "irate'', the court heard, a short time later getting into a scuffle with Stewart, the court heard.
Mr Skinner said there would be evidence from doctor who had treated the young woman as a psychiatric patient from November 2007, diagnosing her with a "schizoaffective disorder''.
"I anticipate in his evidence he will say that she has had in the past, and he has treated for, in the past, some acute episodes ... for severe thought disorder,'' the prosecutor said.
"I expect that his evidence will be that she was on medication, and I expect his evidence will be that the last time she needed treatment for psychotic behaviour, including auditory hallucinations, was in October 2008.''
Stewarts counsel Tony Bellanto QC told the court his client simply "didn't do any of'' the things alleged by the complainant.
Mr Bellanto said one major challenge would be the reliability of both the alleged victim and, in particular, her father.
He said it was a "matter of some delicacy'' and may even be viewed as "unpalatable" to cross-examine the young woman about her mental issues.
"We don't wish to demean her, we don't wish to belittle or take advantage of her, but this man's on trail for an extremely serious series of offences,'' he said.
Earlier the jury was told to ignore what they may have heard about the bad behaviour of "a minority" of sports stars because it was unfair and irrelevant to the Manly fullback's case.
Judge Jonathan Williams warned the jury about listening to any past media reports of the allegations or the coverage of the trial because they were not evidence.
"You must not of course make any presumption of Mr Stewart based on reports such as that (about other sports stars) because they are not evidence of what's alleged to have occurred and never will be," Judge Williams said.
"What you have to do is determine the actions of the accused if any ... That's the only decision that matters."
Stewart has pleaded not guilty to three counts of sexual and indecent assault against the young woman in March 2009.
