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The mess the dogs left
The decision not to lay charges against the Bulldogs has left a dark cloud over everyone involved, writes Jacquelin Magnay.
It began as a mess and it is still a mess. The announcement that no charges will be laid against any Bulldogs player over gang rape allegations is in many ways the worst possible result.
The woman who made the allegations has no closure. The players' and the club's reputations are still under a dark cloud. And instead of evidence tested under oath, there will be a drip-feed of selective, untested information in the media.
A particularly unfortunate side effect of the investigation may be an increased reluctance among victims of rape to come forward.
A Northern Sydney Sexual Assault Unit counsellor, Susan Kendall, says: "This may well have an adverse effect because the biggest fears of people considering whether to report sexual assault is not being believed, or being blamed."
There have been no winners here.
The initial response from besieged Bulldogs players to Tuesday's announcement by the Strike Force McGuigon detectives was euphoric. But euphoria turned to anger as it has become obvious that most people do not see the police decision not to lay charges as the "total vindication" claimed by the Bulldogs' new chief executive, Malcolm Noad.
The club wants to move forward and is relying on its on-field top-of-the-table position to bury the allegations, but the community won't let them die.
Why is this, especially when huge amounts of taxpayers' money has underpinned an exhaustive investigation, replete with phone taps? Partly it is due to the recent widespread airing of male football culture - of clubs having "buns" (women who provide sex for the players on demand), of the freely obtained casual sex from groupies and the embellishment of team bonding by having group sex. People can readily believe that such situations easily get out of hand.
Indeed, in the Bulldogs' case, the one sordid fact that has not been challenged is that at least six players had group sex with the woman who made the rape allegations, three nights before the alleged rape took place.
A quarter of the squad that went to Coffs Harbour for the pre-season trial week has, at the least, breached the club's own code of conduct ban on bringing outsiders back to team accommodation. Such group sex is not criminal, but it clearly indicates that players believe it is OK to have sex in the presence of your mates with a "willing scrag".
"She was pointing to the guys and counting one, two, three, four, five, six and saying she has had more guys than that before," one player told The Sun-Herald a week after the alleged rape. Supposedly, Willie Mason refused the same woman a taxi ride as she tried to hitch a lift to the Novotel Pacific Bay resort earlier that contentious Sunday morning, unaware she had been the team "bun".
And then there was the impact of the truth meeting where players aired their version of events in front of each other two days after returning from the coastal town and nearly a week before the strike force interviewed the players.
Some police officers privately expressed surprise that it took 10 days before Bulldog players were formally interviewed. "We would have picked out two or three of the likely suspects and thrown them in separate cells for a few hours of questioning straight away," said one senior police officer.
At the time, the man heading the investigation, Chief Inspector Jason Breton, told the Herald that the delay in questioning the Bulldogs players was to ensure "all of the ducks are lined up in a row". He had a distraught woman who took two days, amid much counselling, to tell her story. And this week Breton answered bluntly when asked if there was a rape or not: "There was." However, he later noted that "it is always hard to talk about evidence of rape because rape is an offence, sexual intercourse is not, but the evidence is the same".
Now there are clear battlelines drawn between the Bulldogs club and the investigating police. The Bulldogs want to discredit the police investigation so that the public will believe their version of events - and, crucially, bolster some sponsorship support. Two witness statements are circulating which support a version of some players. But there are many other statements which haven't been aired.
The Bulldogs club is even considering whether to try to sue the NSW Government. It feels the police, in referring to the woman as "the victim" and publicly declaring there was a serious rape, would have poisoned any jury pool.
But this strong police support for the woman would give a lot of sexual assault victims some heart, says Julie Stubbs, the deputy director of the Institute of Criminology at the University of Sydney.
"I think some people would find it reassuring that the police went in to bat for her," said Stubbs.
And then there is the mystery of the "seventh player" alleged to have witnessed the incident. The police say there was such a person. The Bulldogs maintain the seventh player was invented by police. The Bulldogs insist there was only consensual sex with one player and two other players were in the vicinity. But Breton was clear when quizzed about this. "I know there was [a seventh person] because an independent witness told me so and signed a statement to that effect."
From the very top to the very bottom of the club, officials and players have hit out, wanting a complete vindication, which hasn't sat well with a public that is highly suspicious and wants a change of culture. "Let's believe nothing happened in Coffs Harbour," said Noad, rising quickly to the defence of his players but then later retracting it. Noad says he meant to infer that nothing criminal happened.
The coach, Steve Folkes, reckoned only 5 per cent of the media information had been true and accused the police of trying to trick his players into using their mobile phones by using the ruse of a seventh player. "Ninety-five per cent has been fabrication, innuendo, rumour and misinformation; it's just been twisted because it sells newspapers or it increases ratings," Folkes said.
One thing that is clear is that the casualties from the Coffs Harbour pre-season trial have ricocheted throughout the club. It has lost $1.35 million of sponsorship and has been fined $500,000 by the NRL. It has sacked football manager Garry Hughes and had the resignations of chief executive Steve Mortimer and board member Peter Mortimer. Innocent players have had to face rigorous questioning from wives and girlfriends.
Perhaps it would have been different if the players had stepped forward and told their side of the story from the beginning. Where is the leadership within the club that is challenging the entrenched attitude to women? Even now the players and the club are hiding behind workplace privacy provisions. Player managers are protecting their players - and once again absolving them of personal responsibility. Noad says the players are privately remorseful about what took place at Coffs Harbour, but no one outside of the club has seen evidence of this. And the penalties on the players who have brought about this crisis? Most probably some fines.
Amid all of the "she said-they said" claims, there is the woman who has moved out of her coastal town and been in virtual hiding since February.
She has not spoken to outsiders despite the lure of substantial amounts of money from various television shows and women's magazines. If she was making these rape claims for financial gain, she has already bypassed a small fortune.
The mess the dogs left
The decision not to lay charges against the Bulldogs has left a dark cloud over everyone involved, writes Jacquelin Magnay.
It began as a mess and it is still a mess. The announcement that no charges will be laid against any Bulldogs player over gang rape allegations is in many ways the worst possible result.
The woman who made the allegations has no closure. The players' and the club's reputations are still under a dark cloud. And instead of evidence tested under oath, there will be a drip-feed of selective, untested information in the media.
A particularly unfortunate side effect of the investigation may be an increased reluctance among victims of rape to come forward.
A Northern Sydney Sexual Assault Unit counsellor, Susan Kendall, says: "This may well have an adverse effect because the biggest fears of people considering whether to report sexual assault is not being believed, or being blamed."
There have been no winners here.
The initial response from besieged Bulldogs players to Tuesday's announcement by the Strike Force McGuigon detectives was euphoric. But euphoria turned to anger as it has become obvious that most people do not see the police decision not to lay charges as the "total vindication" claimed by the Bulldogs' new chief executive, Malcolm Noad.
The club wants to move forward and is relying on its on-field top-of-the-table position to bury the allegations, but the community won't let them die.
Why is this, especially when huge amounts of taxpayers' money has underpinned an exhaustive investigation, replete with phone taps? Partly it is due to the recent widespread airing of male football culture - of clubs having "buns" (women who provide sex for the players on demand), of the freely obtained casual sex from groupies and the embellishment of team bonding by having group sex. People can readily believe that such situations easily get out of hand.
Indeed, in the Bulldogs' case, the one sordid fact that has not been challenged is that at least six players had group sex with the woman who made the rape allegations, three nights before the alleged rape took place.
A quarter of the squad that went to Coffs Harbour for the pre-season trial week has, at the least, breached the club's own code of conduct ban on bringing outsiders back to team accommodation. Such group sex is not criminal, but it clearly indicates that players believe it is OK to have sex in the presence of your mates with a "willing scrag".
"She was pointing to the guys and counting one, two, three, four, five, six and saying she has had more guys than that before," one player told The Sun-Herald a week after the alleged rape. Supposedly, Willie Mason refused the same woman a taxi ride as she tried to hitch a lift to the Novotel Pacific Bay resort earlier that contentious Sunday morning, unaware she had been the team "bun".
And then there was the impact of the truth meeting where players aired their version of events in front of each other two days after returning from the coastal town and nearly a week before the strike force interviewed the players.
Some police officers privately expressed surprise that it took 10 days before Bulldog players were formally interviewed. "We would have picked out two or three of the likely suspects and thrown them in separate cells for a few hours of questioning straight away," said one senior police officer.
At the time, the man heading the investigation, Chief Inspector Jason Breton, told the Herald that the delay in questioning the Bulldogs players was to ensure "all of the ducks are lined up in a row". He had a distraught woman who took two days, amid much counselling, to tell her story. And this week Breton answered bluntly when asked if there was a rape or not: "There was." However, he later noted that "it is always hard to talk about evidence of rape because rape is an offence, sexual intercourse is not, but the evidence is the same".
Now there are clear battlelines drawn between the Bulldogs club and the investigating police. The Bulldogs want to discredit the police investigation so that the public will believe their version of events - and, crucially, bolster some sponsorship support. Two witness statements are circulating which support a version of some players. But there are many other statements which haven't been aired.
The Bulldogs club is even considering whether to try to sue the NSW Government. It feels the police, in referring to the woman as "the victim" and publicly declaring there was a serious rape, would have poisoned any jury pool.
But this strong police support for the woman would give a lot of sexual assault victims some heart, says Julie Stubbs, the deputy director of the Institute of Criminology at the University of Sydney.
"I think some people would find it reassuring that the police went in to bat for her," said Stubbs.
And then there is the mystery of the "seventh player" alleged to have witnessed the incident. The police say there was such a person. The Bulldogs maintain the seventh player was invented by police. The Bulldogs insist there was only consensual sex with one player and two other players were in the vicinity. But Breton was clear when quizzed about this. "I know there was [a seventh person] because an independent witness told me so and signed a statement to that effect."
From the very top to the very bottom of the club, officials and players have hit out, wanting a complete vindication, which hasn't sat well with a public that is highly suspicious and wants a change of culture. "Let's believe nothing happened in Coffs Harbour," said Noad, rising quickly to the defence of his players but then later retracting it. Noad says he meant to infer that nothing criminal happened.
The coach, Steve Folkes, reckoned only 5 per cent of the media information had been true and accused the police of trying to trick his players into using their mobile phones by using the ruse of a seventh player. "Ninety-five per cent has been fabrication, innuendo, rumour and misinformation; it's just been twisted because it sells newspapers or it increases ratings," Folkes said.
One thing that is clear is that the casualties from the Coffs Harbour pre-season trial have ricocheted throughout the club. It has lost $1.35 million of sponsorship and has been fined $500,000 by the NRL. It has sacked football manager Garry Hughes and had the resignations of chief executive Steve Mortimer and board member Peter Mortimer. Innocent players have had to face rigorous questioning from wives and girlfriends.
Perhaps it would have been different if the players had stepped forward and told their side of the story from the beginning. Where is the leadership within the club that is challenging the entrenched attitude to women? Even now the players and the club are hiding behind workplace privacy provisions. Player managers are protecting their players - and once again absolving them of personal responsibility. Noad says the players are privately remorseful about what took place at Coffs Harbour, but no one outside of the club has seen evidence of this. And the penalties on the players who have brought about this crisis? Most probably some fines.
Amid all of the "she said-they said" claims, there is the woman who has moved out of her coastal town and been in virtual hiding since February.
She has not spoken to outsiders despite the lure of substantial amounts of money from various television shows and women's magazines. If she was making these rape claims for financial gain, she has already bypassed a small fortune.
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