By Penny Burfitt

Copyright abc

A former police officer has avoided jail after he perjured himself in a pre-trial hearing of a sexual assault case against NRL player Jack de Belin.

The officer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, lied under oath in 2020 about accessing text messages between Mr de Belin and his lawyer, Craig Osborne, during the investigation into allegations of sexual assault against Mr de Belin and his co-accused, Callan Sinclair.

He falsely told the court in a sworn affidavit, and during a pre-trial stay application, that he thought the text messages he was reviewing on the St George Illawarra star’s phone as part of a search warrant pertained to “Dragon’s business”.

The court heard 190 of 203 text messages accessed between Mr de Belin and Mr Osborne were subject to legal professional privilege.

The stay application was ultimately dismissed, and the matter went to two trials, both ending in hung juries.

The charges against the men have since been dropped.

Impact of perjury ‘limited’

In sentencing, Judge Christine Mendes found that the consequence of the perjury on the police case and the eventual trials of the two men was “limited and confined”.

She said the application to stay proceeding, which was largely based on the improperly accessed messages, was dismissed by the judge at the time who found “no evidence that actual or derivative use was made of material” in the police case.

“The objective harm done was minimal,” she said.

“[But] at a subjective level, the two accused persons would have experienced distress as a result of the conduct.”

She also found the officer was cognitively impaired when he gave evidence because of acute PTSD he was suffering at the time and medication he was taking to combat its effects.

“He was not operating with what could be described as a healthy cognitive reserve,” she said.

She said there was some carelessness in the 49-year-old’s handling of the matter, saying he was an experienced and decorated senior detective who was in charge of the case at the time.

She said his affidavit to the court fell short of disclosing the whole truth.

Judge Mendes said the officer was a “fragile, broken man” who had displayed remorse and had a low chance of reoffending.

Dad disappointed with sentence

Mr de Belin, Mr Sinclair and their families attended court on Friday while the police officer, whose identity is concealed under a court order, was sentenced.

Outside court, Mr de Belin and Terry Sinclair, Callan Sinclair’s father, addressed the media.

Mr Sinclair said he was disappointed with the sentence, which he described as a “slap on the wrist”.

Mr de Belin said it was “a little bit light”.

Mr Sinclair took aim at the police investigation.

“The fact the senior police officer in charge of the investigation was sentenced today for perjury I think speaks volumes,” he said.

Mr de Belin made a short statement thanking his family and friends for their support.

“What’s kept me and Cal strong through all this is our innocence,” he said.

“We’ll speak more about this later.”

The police officer’s sentence came with conditions to continue with mental health treatment.

He was medically retired from the NSW Police in 2023.