A housemate home at the time NRL player Jack de Belin allegedly raped a teenager has admitted lying to police, saying he didn't want to reveal the footballer was cheating on his girlfriend.
De Belin and co-accused Callan Sinclair are facing trial on five counts of aggravated sexual assault over allegations they raped a woman they'd been partying with in December 2018.
Troy Martin on Wednesday told Sydney's Downing Centre District Court he had deliberately lied to police in his statement given the day after the incident.
He told police he had slept through the incident, but had actually woken to murmurs in the townhouse he shared with de Belin's cousin Jake Lewis.
He walked downstairs, where he spotted a woman naked on his housemate's bed, de Belin also naked and standing at the foot of the bed, with Mr Sinclair standing fully clothed nearby.
"Once driving to the police station I realised that I didn't want to be involved in whatever happened ... so I tried to say as little as I could to try and protect myself," Mr Martin said.
"I really didn't want to be the person who was going to tell everyone that he was cheating on his partner."
He would have immediately told police the truth about what he saw if he had realised what they were investigating, he said.
The jury also heard from two of the friends of the woman who she had contacted for help after the alleged rape.
A workmate of the alleged victim who was also out partying that night received an Instagram message saying "I need help" in the early hours of the morning of the incident.
His housemate, who also knew the woman, had spotted her in a car with de Belin and Sinclair after the alleged rape.
He too received a message from the woman, this time on Snapchat, about what had occurred.
"The guys you saw me with just f***ing abused me sexually," it read.
Another witness told the court the woman had come to work the next day complaining of a sore chest.
Matthew Mahoney said his colleague had told him the previous night had been "crazy" and that she had gone back to an apartment with de Belin and Sinclair.
"She told me that when she was back there she was trying to leave on a few occasions and she wasn't allowed or felt like she wasn't allowed," Mr Mahoney said.
"At one point, she said that Mr de Belin held her down with his hands to her chest."
When she came to work again the day after their conversation, the woman was still sore and showed Mr Mahoney some discolouration near her collarbone.
"It kind of looked like a bruise was forming but there wasn't a big bruise there yet," he said.
The woman did not seem upset or emotional at the time however, Mr Mahoney admitted during cross-examination.
Both St George Illawarra star de Belin and Sinclair say the sex was consensual and that she agreed to a threesome after Wollongong's Santa Pub Crawl.
But the woman, 19 at the time, has told the court she was crying and repeated "stop" multiple times throughout a non-consensual sexual encounter with both men at a North Wollongong unit.
The trial continues.
Australian Associated Press
