NRL Dragons player Jack de Belin paid a woman $50 for her silence after he and a friend jointly raped her in a North Wollongong unit, a jury has heard.
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The St George Illawarra Dragons forward and his co-accused, Callan Sinclair, fronted Wollongong District Court on Tuesday for the opening day of their trial, where details of the alleged sexual assault were aired for the first time.
Crown prosecutor David Scully told jurors the 19-year-old woman agreed to accompany the men from Wollongong's Mr Crown nightclub to another nightspot after she shared a kiss with 23-year-old Sinclair late on December 8, 2018.
But the men diverted their tuk-tuk to an empty Gipps Street apartment belonging to de Belin's cousin, telling the woman they needed to charge their phones.
The woman initially told the men she would stay outside, but then decided to go in to use the toilet.
Mr Scully said de Belin, 29, walked into the bathroom naked and began showering while the woman was on the toilet, telling her "good, you didn't lock the door".
De Belin was still naked when she emerged. The men told her "show us your tits" before de Belin allegedly physically overpowered her, ripped off her clothes, forced open her legs and grabbed her by the throat and lent on her chest.
Mr Scully said the men "spurred each other on" with de Belin telling Sinclair "come have a go" and "nice, Cal" as they simultaneously raped the woman vaginally and orally, switching multiple times, before it is alleged de Belin raped her anally, causing her to scream "stop, it hurts".
The woman claims de Belin told her "sorry I didn't mean for it hurt", then he allegedly grabbed her throat again and pinned her under him before resuming the assault.
Mr Scully said the woman had "tears pouring down her cheeks", before the assaults ended with de Belin ejaculating on her back.
Sinclair asked the woman why she was crying, and she told him she did not want to have sex.
De Belin also asked her "why are you being so emotional? It wasn't bad, it was good", the jury heard.
He later asked her "can you keep your mouth shut?", to which she replied "yes".
Mr Scully said the woman repeatedly objected to having sex but "her calls to stop and attempts to resist fell on deaf ears, and there came a point where she felt incapable of offering any further resistance".
"The complainant was faced with two men alone in a strange bedroom, in a strange unit."
The trio were collected in an Uber at 1.57am. En route to another Wollongong nightclub, de Belin allegedly told the woman "here is $50 for the Uber and to keep your mouth shut."
Jurors heard the woman felt unable to shake off the two men after she told them she was going to a different nightspot to them and they replied "we're going wherever you're going".
"Mr De Belin, having the profile that he did, people were coming up to try and speak to him ... and the complainant did not want to make a scene," Mr Scully said. "She went with them to the line at Fever but she did not stay very long."
The Crown alleges CCTV footage captured the woman leaving the nightclub minutes after entering, before she caught an Uber home at 2.16am.
The Crown will call multiple witnesses the woman later told about her alleged ordeal, including a male friend who inquired about her wellbeing via Snapchat on the night and received her response: "those guys ... just f---ing abused me sexually".
A common friend shared the woman's allegations with Sinclair, who told the friend that he and de Belin had "done nothing wrong". Sinclair messaged the woman directly the next day, telling her, "everything was consensual. It was a good night".
The woman did not reply. By then, at the urging of her boss, she had attended Wollongong Police Station to report the alleged rapes.
Lawyers for both men told the jury they denied all five charges of aggravated sexual assault. Both highlighted their clients' good character.
"Mr de Belin has never disputed that sexual activity took place this evening between he and the complainant, in the company of Mr Sinclair. The issue that he raises is that everything that happened there, happened with the consent of those involved," de Belin's defence barrister said.
"I'll give you some background information about him. One of the things we'll be inviting you to look at ... is whether or not he's the sort of person who would go and do these type of horrible things the Crown is trying to establish."
In a brief opening address, Sinclair's barrister Craig Smith said his client had a clean criminal history and came from a loving family.
"Mr Sinclair did not sexually assault [the woman]. He did not do that. He did not do that. Callum Sinclair with Mr De Belin was involved in certain sexual activity with [the woman], all of which was consensual. There is evidence both before and after that activity that is consistent with the activity being consensual activity."
The Crown must prove the sex was non-consensual, and that de Belin and Sinclair knew this.
The trial continues.