i hope the NRL are keeping a close eye on who is paying for Stewart seeing initial reports said Manly hired his lawyer
http://www.news.com.au/national/cle...rt-to-sell-story/story-e6frfkvr-1225932032475
Cleared NRL star Brett Stewart forced to sell story
NRL poster boy Brett Stewart is in negotiations to sell his story after spending his lifesavings on defending sexual assault allegations in court.
The Manly Sea Eagles rugby league player was yesterday found not guilty in a Sydney court of two counts of sexually assaulting a teenage neighbour outside his unit block in Manly, in Sydney's north, on March 6 last year, The Australian reported.
Stewart, 25, burst into tears when the jury's verdict was announced, ending 18 months of anxiety for the fullback, his beauty therapist girlfriend Jaime Baker and his parents, Barry and Narelle, who sat beside him in the NSW District Court.
Stewart and his family, including brother and fellow Sea Eagles player Glenn Stewart, left court via a rear exit, evading the cameras and guaranteeing an exclusive story for the highest bidder.
The Nine Network last night promoted what it billed as an exclusive interview with Stewart to run on The Footy Show tonight.
Sources close to the player said Stewart, who is understood to earn about $400,000 a year, spent his lifesavings on defending the case and was now hoping to recoup some of the money.
Stewart employed Tony Bellanto QC and legal sources say the top silk, along with a junior barrister and instructing solicitor, would cost almost $200,000 for the 10-day trial and two-day committal hearing.
The only person to speak outside court on behalf of Stewart was his solicitor, Ian Byrne. "This was a case of a girl with hallucinations and delusions," Mr Byrne said.
The woman, now 19, alleged she was approached by a drunken Stewart who stuck his tongue down her throat and digitally penetrated her.
But in Stewart's version, which the jury believed, the girl grabbed him by the arm and tried to kiss him.
Yesterday's verdict brought an end to 18 months of hell for the one time face of rugby league.
Stewart sat in the beechwood dock of the District Court for the past two weeks, quietly seething that he was there at all.
Because what Stewart knows - but a court order prevents any media outlet from revealing - is that there have always been severe doubts about the veracity of the claims made against him, the Daily Telegraph reported.
The girl who made the allegations suffers from a mental illness but the extent of her condition, treatment and her symptoms cannot be published by court order.
Trial Judge Jonathan Williams felt it necessary to urge the jury in his summing up of the case to tread carefully when weighing up the reliability of the teenager's testimony in light of her psychiatric condition.
Her father's evidence also drew stunned looks from the jury - a convicted fraudster who the judge described as a "volatile man" happily admitted to the court that he once had to "look in his wallet" to work out which name he was using on any given day.
