A man who told a jury he was present during an alleged rape of a woman by Jack de Belin and Callan Sinclair has admitted to lying in his police statement because he did not want to tell de Belin's partner that he had cheated on her.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Jurors heard evidence from multiple witnesses on Thursday during the second week of the NSW District Court trial for de Belin, 29, and Sinclair, 23, who stand accused of jointly raping a then 19-year-old woman on December 9, 2018 following a night out at Mr Crown.
The pair have been charged with five counts each of aggravated sexual assault to which they have pleaded not guilty and claim the sexual intercourse was consensual.
The woman was allegedly sexually assaulted after she, de Belin and Sinclair went back to a Gipps Street apartment.
In the woman's evidence on Monday, she told the court she did not see anyone else apart from de Belin and Sinclair in the house, which belonged to de Belin's cousin and his two roommates.
However, Troy Martin, who lived at the home, told jurors that he went to bed, on the upper level of the apartment, at 9.30pm on December 8 before being awoken by noises later that night.
He said he went downstairs to investigate the noise, stood at the bedroom door where he saw de Belin standing naked at the foot of a bed, with a woman lying naked in the middle of the bed and Sinclair standing fully clothed near the mirror.
Mr Martin told jurors he heard the woman say, 'Jack, who is that' before he turned to walk away as the bedroom door was closed.
He then went to the bathroom next to the bedroom, washed his hands and had a drink of water when he said de Belin walked into the bathroom and said, "sorry mate, just borrowing your house. Didn't realise anyone was home".
Mr Martin told the court de Belin then walked back into the bedroom and closed the door behind him before he went back upstairs and to bed.
Mr Martin said he could only hear "muffled conversation" but nothing specific and claimed he did not hear anyone say "no", "don't" nor any screams.
Mr Martin, who is a school teacher, went on to admit he lied to police when he told officers about the events that night when he gave his statement on Sunday, December 9 as he did not tell police he got out of bed, let alone saw de Belin, Sinclair or the woman inside the bedroom.
"Sometime in the night I heard noises and one voice which I thought was coming from outside. I was unable to hear what was said and I went back to sleep and woke up around 7am as I was attending a charity walk. I didn't notice anything different in my premises from when I went to bed," his statement said.
Crown prosecutor David Scully asked Mr Martin "were you deliberately lying to police?"
"Yes," Mr Martin replied.
During cross examination of Mr Martin, de Belin's lawyer David Campbell asked him why he lied to police.
"I didn't want to be a part of what I witnessed, which now has worked out worse," Mr Martin replied.
"The second reason was I also knew that Mr de Belin had a partner and didn't want to be the responsible one for telling he was cheating on her."
"You were trying to keep yourself out of it if you could," Mr Campbell said.
"Yes," Mr Martin replied.
Mr Martin said he told his roommates, girlfriend and school executive that he had not told the truth to police when asked about it in the days after he gave his statement.
Mr Martin told the court that in October 2019 he signed a statutory declaration detailing what he heard and saw in the early hours of December 9, 2018.
Mr Scully suggested to Mr Martin that he was lying when giving evidence in court on Thursday.
"I disagree," he replied.
Mr Martin will continue to give evidence on Friday when the trial continues.
We depend on subscription revenue to support our journalism. If you are able, please subscribe here. If you are already a subscriber, thank you for your support.
Subscribe to our newsletters
