Latest news with #falseevidence
ABC News
5 days ago
- ABC News
Jack de Belin attends court appearance of police officer who perjured himself during case
A former NSW Police officer who perjured himself in relation to a sexual assault case involving NRL player Jack de Belin and his co-accused Callan Sinclair was suffering from deteriorating mental illness when he gave false evidence, a court has heard. The officer, who can only be identified as "Officer A" due to a court suppression order, was in court with supporters today alongside Mr de Belin and Mr Sinclair, both of whom were joined by their families. The officer was a detective in the investigation into Mr De Belin and Mr Sinclair when the pair were charged with sexually assaulting a 19-year-old women in Wollongong in 2018. According to an agreed statement of facts, Officer A gave false evidence during an application to stay proceedings in February 2020. The application to halt proceedings was ultimately dismissed and the case went to two separate trials, both ending in hung juries. The case was then abandoned by prosecutors. Officer A was questioned about accessing and sharing privileged text messages between Mr de Belin and his lawyer Craig Osborne, during a review of the football star's phone in 2019. In a sworn affidavit, Officer A stated that he believed the messages from "Craig Lawyer" on the phone related to St George Illawarra Dragons business and not to Mr de Belin's legal defence. He later admitted under cross examination he knew Mr Osborne was Mr de Belin's solicitor in the sexual assault case but maintained they only appeared to detail "dragons business". Officer A has since pleaded guilty to perjuring himself by falsely affirming that the review of text messages "contained information about dragons football club business alone". In Wollongong District Court today he faced a sentencing hearing. Judge Christine Mendes will deliver a final sentence on September 12. Officer A served with NSW Police from May 2002 until his medical retirement in August 2023. In court today the Crown prosecutor Ciro Triscari said Officer A deliberately mislead the court when he claimed the text messages were about "dragons business" in a sworn affidavit. The prosecutor told the court around 190 messages accessed on the phone contained "privileged communications between Mr de Belin and his lawyer". "This represents a serious example of perjury when one considers the position occupied by the offender in question," Mr Triscari said. Officer A's defence lawyer Dr Peggy Dwyer said the long-serving officer and defence services veteran had been experiencing deteriorating mental health for months prior to his perjury. Dr Dwyer provided eight psychologist and psychiatrist reports detailing complex PTSD and depressive illnesses suffered by Officer A after he was exposed to "gruesome and disturbing incidents" in his role as a detective. "There can be no doubt he was suffering from PTSD in February and that it impacted his capacity to give evidence," she said. Dr Dwyer argued the perjury was "an innocent mistake" made "in a moment of panic" which did not impact the eventual trial of Mr de Belin and Mr Sinclair. "This was not a case where anything [Officer A] did or didn't do changed whether or not they were charged," she said. The Crown argued the threshold for a custodial sentence had been breached in their final submissions to Judge Mendes. The defence called for any custodial sentence potentially required be served in the community under an Intensive Corrective Order, referring to one psychiatrist's report which found a jail term could be 'catastrophic' for the former police officer. The case will return to Wollongong Court for sentencing in September, after which spokespeople for Mr de Belin and Mr Sinclair are expected to make statements. Mr De Belin spent three years out of the NRL during the criminal proceedings and will finish with St George Illawarra at the end of 2025 after the club declined to extend his contract.
Daily Mail
01-08-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Dragons forward Jack de Belin to face ex‑cop who lied in sexual assault case that was ultimately dropped
Jack de Belin will next week face a former police officer in court who admitted lying during his sexual assault proceedings. The officer, known only as Officer A, will be sentenced for giving false evidence under oath in 2020. The false testimony related to his handling of legally privileged text messages found on de Belin's seized phone. The officer, under a court suppression order, pleaded guilty to perjury. The charge relates to false evidence given in February 2020 in the NSW District Court. He told the court he believed text messages between de Belin and his lawyer were 'Dragons business'. The messages were in fact with solicitor Craig Osborne, a Dragons director and part of de Belin's legal team. Police seized de Belin's phone in December 2019 and examined it using Cellebrite software. They accessed 203 messages between de Belin and 'Craig Lawyer', many covered by legal privilege. Lawyers for de Belin and co‑accused Callan Sinclair argued this breached their right to a fair trial. The issue emerged during a pre‑trial stay application, which was rejected. De Belin and Sinclair were accused of sexually assaulting a 19‑year‑old woman in December 2018. They denied all allegations and pleaded not guilty. The first trial in 2020 ended without a verdict. A retrial in 2021 also failed to reach a verdict. The Director of Public Prosecutions later dropped all charges. Both men maintained the encounter was consensual. The NSW Police Professional Standards Command investigated Officer A's conduct for three years. He was later medically retired from the force. He will be sentenced in Wollongong District Court on Tuesday. De Belin, Sinclair and their families are expected to attend. They have called for an inquiry into police handling of the case. De Belin was sidelined from the NRL for three years under the 'no fault' stand‑down rule. He challenged the policy in the Federal Court but lost. Justice Melissa Perry ruled the rule lawful. De Belin returned to the field after the case ended. He has since played regularly for the Dragons. The 34‑year‑old has made 245 NRL appearances since 2011. He has represented New South Wales in State of Origin and Papua New Guinea at Test level. Earlier this year, Parramatta Eels announced they had signed him for 2025. De Belin said leaving the Dragons 'broke his heart' after his long career at the club.
BBC News
03-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
MI5 false evidence was a serious failing, Cooper says
The home secretary has said MI5 giving false evidence to multiple courts was a "serious failing", as she accepted a further investigation should take Cooper, who is responsible for the security service, made a written statement to Parliament a day after the High Court ruled MI5's explanations for its false evidence were deficient and said the government accepted the High Court's conclusion that a "further, robust and independent investigation" should take place.A panel of three senior judges, including the Lady Chief Justice Baroness Sue Carr, on Wednesday rejected two official inquiries into the false evidence. One inquiry was commissioned by Cooper and the other was carried out internally by two reviews took place after the BBC revealed MI5 had lied to three courts in a case concerning a neo-Nazi state agent who abused women. The flawed reviews cleared MI5 of deliberate High Court judgement said the new investigation should be carried out under the auspices of the Investigatory Powers Commissioner, Sir Brian Leveson, who has oversight of MI5's surveillance activities. His office, IPCO, was also provided with false evidence by MI5 in the Home Office has refused to answer questions about the position of MI5's third-in-command, the director general strategy, whose witness evidence was found by the High Court to have been neither fair or accurate and to have omitted critical information, which had to be forced out of MI5 by the did not mention the senior spy in her said she remained "deeply concerned" about what happened, and that "internal processes at MI5 must improve, starting with the implementation of all recommendations made so far in relation to this case". She added that she has asked the Attorney General, Lord Hermer, to conduct an internal review of how "evidence from MI5 should be prepared and presented in future"."I have asked my officials to review the wider issues raised by this case," she added. The case began in 2022 with an attempt to block the BBC from publishing a story about a neo-Nazi agent known as Agent X. He used his role to coerce and terrify his former girlfriend - known publicly as "Beth" - and had attacked her with a gave evidence to three courts, saying that it had never breached its core secrecy policy of neither confirming nor denying (NCND) that X was a state in February, the BBC was able to prove with notes and recordings of phone calls with MI5 that this was we first exposed the abuse by Agent X in 2022, Cooper – then shadow home secretary – said in a BBC interview that the report "showed very disturbing images of abuse, and domestic abuse is a horrible crime". "I think, given the seriousness of this, the Home Secretary needs to make sure there is an independent assessment of the handling of this case," she added. In a statement to parliament on Thursday, she said she was "unable to comment" on a case against MI5 brought by Beth, involving "accusations that Agent X committed acts of domestic abuse against their partner".But she added that the government was "clear that all organisations must have robust safeguarding policies under continuous review and must take any allegation of domestic abuse extremely seriously".
