What really happened at Coffs Harbour in the early hours of Sunday morning 22 February this year may never be known. The woman's story begins at this nightclub where she met with players. She then went back to the resort hotel where the Bulldogs were staying. Some time after 5am she claims to have been near the pool with footballers. It's not clear whether she had consensual sex with one or more of the players but her statement, leaked on radio, told of a night that went sickeningly out of control.
RAY HADLEY, RADIO 2GB: Initial information to police was that the victim alleged coming to the resort from the Plantation Hotel with a Canterbury rugby league player. She has then disclosed that at least six of them sexually assaulted her without her consent, by anal, oral and vaginal penetration. Injuries - grazing, bruising, trauma.
TICKY FULLERTON: At around 7am, the woman, in her early 20s, was found by hotel staff, wet and disoriented, wandering around the resort car park. Shortly afterwards, she was taken by ambulance to hospital and later made a statement to police. What follows is a familiar pattern, leading to the case being dropped. After 10 weeks of tense media speculation police announced that no charges would be laid against any Bulldogs players. But the rugby club's handling of gang rape allegations has brought criticism from the League.
If you were in management at the Bulldogs would you have handled the allegations of rape differently?
DAVID GALLOP, NRL CHIEF EXECUTIVE: Yes, um, I don't think their initial reaction was appropriate. I think they were rather naive, uh, in the way they handled it in the early days.
TICKY FULLERTON: Naive, or do you think this was about club protection of the brand?
DAVID GALLOP: Possibly that was...that was part of it. And you're dealing with people who have strong passion for their club.
TICKY FULLERTON: Once the woman left for hospital it's understood that detectives talked to four players who knew her. But it was the club's football manager, Garry Hughes, and not the police, who selected these players. Neither the police nor the club detained any footballers in Coffs and the team flew home to Sydney that Sunday afternoon. It's also believed that a full statement from the woman was not taken until two days later.
That same Tuesday, after training in Sydney, Bulldogs players and club management met behind closed doors to discuss just what had gone on at Coffs. It became known as the 'truth meeting'.
JAQUELIN MAGNAY, 'SYDNEY MORNING HERALD': They'd had a morning training session and then they decided to have a meeting after training whereby the players in the room, uh, were gathered together and they stood up and one by one gave their account of what they wanted the other players to know, what had happened that night. So it was a so-called 'truth' meeting. The players were supposed to be open and honest and reveal what had gone on. But it was also a very convenient way of the players to ensure that everybody else knew what their story was and that this was their version of the truth as to what happened on that...that Sunday morning.
TICKY FULLERTON: So it was a way of everybody getting their stories straight before talking to the police, in your view?
JAQUELIN MAGNAY: Oh, totally. I mean, it was just a way of the club dealing with something that was very ugly. And it was a way for the players to make sure that everybody knew what their version of events was.
MALCOLM NOAD, BULLDOGS CHIEF EXECUTIVE: It wasn't a sort of closed-door meeting to orchestrate, uh, evidence and...and statements at...at all. I'm convinced of that.
TICKY FULLERTON: Could you see why it could have been perceived as that?
MALCOLM NOAD: I can understand why it could have been perceived as that, yeah.
TICKY FULLERTON: The Sunday after the truth meeting there was a further muddying of the waters. A story in the 'Sun Herald' quoted unnamed Bulldogs players revealing: "Some of the boys love a bun. Gang banging is nothing new for our club or the rugby league." In the same story players claimed the woman had lured footballers into the pool and consented to sex with eight of them. The club quickly denied its players had ever spoken to the media. The League wasn't so sure.
DAVID GALLOP, NRL CHIEF EXECUTIVE: Well, I certainly understand that the players deny it but we have checked with not only the journalists involved but more senior, uh, people in...in the media organisations. Um, of course you would in some respects expect, um, that nobody's going to put their hand up to those comments. They are terribly damaging, not only to that club, but they cause damage to our game.
TICKY FULLERTON: True or not, the comments undermined the woman's allegations. By the time police finally got the players' version, it was a full 10 days after the alleged rape. Even then, their statements were described as 'scant'. Their dress spoke volumes. There was even a T-shirt with a slogan "We play dirty". To onlookers, this was typical of the club's siege mentality seen during the salary cap scandal two years earlier.
MALCOLM NOAD, BULLDOGS CHIEF EXECUTIVE: One of the great things about the football team - the Canterbury football team - is that they really bunker down under pressure.
TICKY FULLERTON: But is that 'bunkering down' when allegations come about activities off the field...?
MALCOLM NOAD: Well, I was going to go on to say that perhaps that culture on the football team um, extends to off field as well, and, um, you know, in some instances, that's not a bad thing. Uh, but in some, you need to open up.
TICKY FULLERTON: Opening up will be a challenge, according to one former club employee. She recalls a hatred of off-field publicity, epitomised by Garry Hughes, whose loyalty to the players is well documented.
DEBBIE SPILLANE, FORMER BULLDOGS MEDIA MANAGER: It was just no. "Media - they can look after themselves. Don't want a bar of it." And Garry Hughes's famous saying to me was, "If it comes to the media, tell them nothing and be careful how you say it."
TICKY FULLERTON: In his interview, new chief executive Malcolm Noad was careful not to prejudge the outcome of the investigation.
Whether charges are laid or dropped, there could well have been a rape at Coffs Harbour, couldn't there?
MALCOLM NOAD: Um, I don't want to comment on that.
TICKY FULLERTON: Shortly afterwards, Malcolm Noad made an extraordinary change in tactics. The club released the results of its own investigation before the police made any decision on charges. Malcolm Noad said, "It all points to the fact that there was certainly no rape. Neither was there even consensual sex. It simply didn't happen."
That was certainly not the message from the police last week when they finally announced no charges would be laid. When asked whether the woman had been sexually assaulted, D.I. Breton said...
(TELEVISION INTERVIEW PLAYS)
D.I. BRETON: There was evidence consistent with her version, as of the date of complaint.
MAN: Was there any evidence of rape physically?
D.I. BRETON: Yes.
MAN: There was evidence...physical evidence...?
D.I. BRETON: Well, it's always hard to talk about "evidence of rape" because when we...if... Rape's an offence. Um...sexual intercourse isn't. But the evidence could be the same.
TICKY FULLERTON: The Bulldogs claimed vindication. The question remains, how long does it take for a club culture to change? It may seem incredible, but last year, at the same hotel, another woman accused players of sexual assault and the club of cover-up.
JAQUELIN MAGNAY, 'SYDNEY MORNING HERALD': She'd just fled the room and ran into two Bulldogs' officials, and she was encouraged to sit down and write a page of complaint, and she was convinced that this complaint was going to be dealt with.
TICKY FULLERTON: Did you hear her allegations - that she had been pressured by the club not to go to the police?
DAVID GALLOP, NRL CHIEF EXECUTIVE: In recent times, yes. But not back then when that happened.
TICKY FULLERTON: Does that concern you?
DAVID GALLOP: It did concern us greatly, obviously.
TICKY FULLERTON: Even more concerning, Four Corners has learnt that there is one Bulldogs player who was involved in both the incidents at Coffs Harbour.
MALCOLM NOAD, BULLDOGS CHIEF EXECUTIVE: My understanding is that there isn't.
TICKY FULLERTON: If there turns out to be a player who was common to both incidents, would you take action against that player?
MALCOLM NOAD: Look, I think we need to look at what action we take across the board. Um...and there are a range of things that we can do which clearly I'm not in a position to be able to talk about now.
TICKY FULLERTON: Will you be going back to the same hotel as a club?
MALCOLM NOAD: I doubt it.
JANE'S COUSIN: It's not a culture that necessarily is full of integrity and I think, um, it's a culture that, by skill, places more value on the skill of the player, not necessarily their moral responsibility, and I don't think you can do that.
TICKY FULLERTON: What does it say about the clubs?
JANE'S COUSIN: That skill's more important.
SARAH'S BOYFRIEND: I think they've got a lot of explaining to do. I think that they know what goes on in these clubs, what their players get up to when they're not at training and not at the games.
TICKY FULLERTON: As the season continues, all eyes are on the game. What happens off the field is less scrutinised. Yet the fact remains that in the past 20 years not one of the cases of alleged rape in AFL and rugby league has led to successful prosecution.
