The jury in the retrial of NRL's Jack de Belin and his friend Callan Sinclair heard the sidelined Dragons player likely did not plan to rape a young woman in 2018 but when she resisted he "took sex by force".
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The NSW District Court trial begun on Wednesday for de Belin, 30, and Sinclair, 23, in Sydney Downing Centre after they pleaded not guilty to five counts of aggravated sexual intercourse without consent.
The men do not dispute sex intercourse took place but they claim it was consensual.
The Crown alleges the men met a then 19-year-old woman at Mr Crown nightclub in Wollongong on December 8 after they attended the annual Santa Pub Crawl.
Crown prosecutor David Scully alleged the young woman and the men danced and had fun while in the club before they left.
"From the complainant's view she was a 19-year-old at Christmas time, she was dancing and having good time," Mr Scully said.
"That did not mean, on the Crown case, that she wanted to have sex with the two accused."
Mr Scully said the men thought the woman was "keen" to have a threesome from her behaviour on the dancefloor.
The woman thought the group was going to Fever Nightclub however Mr Scully alleged de Belin "hoped and expected" sex would occur that night and instead arranged to take her to a Gipps Street townhouse belonging to his cousin.
"There was a fundamental disconnect between what the two accused hoped and expected would occur and what the complainant wanted," he said.
After de Belin, Sinclair and the woman got into a pedicab and were taken to the North Wollongong house, de Belin allegedly directed the woman to the bedroom ensuite so she could use the bathroom once at the unit the Crown alleged.
Mr Scully alleged de Belin then forcibly removed the woman's clothes, pushed her onto the bed while he said, "show us your rack" while she said "no" and "stop".
"The Crown case is de Belin was, after having got the complainant back to the unit, determined to have sex with her and determined to have a threesome," Mr Scully said.
"On the Crown case, he didn't take no for an answer.
"He decided to take that sex by force. Mr Sinclair decided to join in."
The Crown alleged de Belin opened the teen's legs, put his hand around her throat, leant on her with his forearm on her collarbone and had sexual intercourse with her.
The Crown alleged de Belin then asked Sinclair if he was "ready" before he forcibly grabbed her hair and put his penis in the woman's mouth while Sinclair had vaginal sex with her.
Mr Scully alleged the men "cheered each other on" while the woman cried and "felt dead and numb inside".
The men allegedly swapped positions two times before Sinclair left the room to have a shower while de Belin continued to have sex with the woman on a desk, the bed again and then on an ottoman before he finished.
The Crown alleged de Belin tried to have anal sex with the woman while on the desk but when screamed he apologised.
After having a quick shower, the woman allegedly told Sinclair that she "didn't want any of that to happen" before she was asked to order an Uber as the men had not charged their phone.
The trio left the unit and were driven to Heyday Nightclub.
During the ride, de Belin handed the teen $50 and said it was "for the Uber and to keep your mouth shut", Mr Scully alleged.
Upon walking from Heyday to Fever, the trio were captured on CCTV where the woman appeared to smile and laugh in what the Crown alleged was an attempt to "make herself feel safe".
The jury heard the woman left shortly after arriving at the nightclub line and she got an Uber and went home but while waiting for the ride she allegedly sent a message to a friend that read, "those guys you saw me with just f***ing abused me sexually".
Mr Scully told the jury they would hear evidence about the communications the woman had with her friends and work managers before she reported the alleged assault to police on the afternoon of Sunday, December 9.
Mr Scully said jurors would also hear about the injuries the woman sustained during the alleged assault.
He went on to flag that the main issues central to the case would be whether the woman consented to the sex and whether de Belin and Sinclair knew she was not consenting.
De Belin's defence barrister David Campbell SC urged the jury to consider the woman's credibility and reliability and asked them to assess the way she interacted with de Belin and Sinclair at the club and in the pedicab prior to reaching the townhouse.
He went on to say the jury would hear evidence from a roommate who was present on the night of the alleged assault which Mr Campbell said was consistent with consensual sex.
Mr Campbell also asked the jury to assess from the CCTV footage, witnesses and text messages, if the woman was behaving as someone who says they were "viciously raped" just prior.
"Each of them (de Belin and Sinclair) have forcefully, emphatically, repeatedly and consistently... denied there was anything untoward about what happened," Mr Campbell said.
He added the telephone intercepts of conversations de Belin and Sinclair had with friends and family were "utterances of honest men who have nothing to hide".
Sinclair's defence barrister Sharyn Hall also urged the jury to consider the woman's evidence asking them to assess whether she acted in a way that they would expect someone to act given what she alleged happened.
Ms Hall said the jury would hear Sinclair tell his parents and friends in the intercepted phones call that everything that happened on that night was consensual.
The trial is expect to take three weeks. It continues on Thursday.
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