A man who lived at the Wollongong apartment where a woman was allegedly raped by St George Illawarra star Jack de Belin said he initially lied to police about what he'd witnessed, partly because he didn't want to reveal the footballer was cheating on his girlfriend.
Primary school teacher Troy Martin told a NSW District Court jury on Thursday that he woke to noises in the early hours of December 9, 2018 and found Mr de Belin naked in his absent housemate's bedroom with a woman lying naked on the bed and Mr Sinclair standing in the room fully clothed.
Mr Martin admitted he lied to police when he initially told them he had woken briefly to some noises before going back to sleep, telling the court that he had withheld the truth for multiple reasons.
"The first one obviously being that I didn't want to be a part of what I had witnessed, which now has worked out ... worse," Mr Martin told the court under cross-examination by Mr de Belin's barrister David Campbell, SC.
"The second reason, I also knew that Mr de Belin had a partner, and I didn't want to be the responsible one for telling that he was cheating on her."
Asked if there was a third reason, Mr Martin said he also had the distinct impression that police already knew someone else had been inside the apartment, and there were security cameras outside they would probably check.
" I thought] they're going to find out from someone else, not me," he said.
Mr de Belin, 29, and Mr Sinclair, 23, are on trial before Wollongong judge Andrew Haesler, after both pleaded not guilty to five charges each of aggravated sexual assault, claiming the encounter with the then-19-year-old woman after a night of partying was consensual.
Mr Martin said that when he saw the trio through the open bedroom door, the woman asked Mr de Belin, "Who was that?" before someone closed the door, and he went to the bathroom and to get a drink of water.
He then said a still-naked Mr de Belin approached him and said, "Sorry mate, just borrowing your house, didn't realise anyone was home."
Crown prosecutor David Scully put to Mr Martin that he was continuing to lie in his newer version of events, to which Mr Martin replied, "I disagree."
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, previously told the court she never saw another man come to the door, contradicting Mr Martin's version of events, which had earlier been put to her by Mr Campbell.
Under cross-examination, Mr Martin said that police came to the house on the night of December 9, 2018 and confiscated his mobile phone, and after accompanying them to the police station he resolved not to tell them any more than he had to. He agreed in hindsight that he would've behaved differently.
The court heard the police returned his phone to the school where he worked the next day, prompting questions from the school executive about their attendance.
He said he told the executive, as well as his girlfriend and roommate whose room Mr de Belin had been in, that he hadn't been truthful with the police, and in October 2019 completed a statutory declaration that set out the version of events he gave in court.
"I told him that I didn't tell them Jack's name," he said of his conversation with the roommate.
He said he hadn't heard any screams or the word "no" used, to which Mr Campbell replied, "it just looked like three people collected in a room, doing what they wanted to be doing."
Mr Martin agreed.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...to-protect-jack-de-belin-20201112-p56e2x.html
