By Steve Zemek
Copyright news
The man — who can only be known as Officer A for legal reasons — on Friday fronted Wollongong District Court, where he was sentenced to 12-month term of imprisonment to be served in the community.
The former detective senior constable admitted to lying under oath during the pre-trial proceedings of the St George Illawarra Dragons forward and his friend Callan Sinclair.
Earlier this year, the now ex-cop pleaded guilty to one count of giving false evidence under oath amounting to perjury.
The proceedings brought Officer A face to face with Mr de Belin, Mr Sinclair, and a large throng of their family and supporters, who were present in court and remain angry with the police investigation.
Officer A was found to have lied in February 2020 while being cross examined about material he had viewed on Mr de Belin’s phone despite the messages being covered by legal professional privilege.
Officer A viewed texts between Mr de Belin and his solicitor, but later lied under oath when he told a judge he believed they related to “Dragons business”.
Outside court on Friday, Mr Sinclair’s family labelled the sentence handed to Officer A as “a slap on the wrist”.
While Mr de Belin called it: “Obviously a little bit light. But it is what it is.”
“All I want to really say is that I’m just so happy and lucky to be supported by a beautiful family and friends,” Mr de Belin said.
“What’s kept Cal and myself so strong throughout this has been our innocence.”
Mr Sinclair’s father, Terry Sinclair, told media outside court that it was “disturbing” that “basic police procedures weren’t followed” during the investigation into his son and Mr de Belin.
“The sexual assault case brought against Jack and Callan by police and the DPP was solely based on an accusation by a complainant with no objective evidence to support any of the allegations, accompanied by a police investigation that was dishonest, at time incompetent and totally unprofessional,” Terry Sinclair said.
He further called the police investigation “nothing more than a blatant and concerted effort by the detectives involved to achieve an outcome – which was a conviction of a high-profile NRL rugby league player in Jack de Belin.”
Mr De Belin and Mr Sinclair faced two trials in the NSW District Court after pleading not guilty to sexually assaulting a woman inside a North Wollongong unit in December 2018, with both ending in hung juries.
After a second trial, they were both found not guilty of of one count of sexual assault and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions dropped the remaining charges.
The pair has consistently maintained that any sexual contact was consensual.
Officer A was charged relating to his evidence in the District Court during a pre-trial hearing after Mr de Belin and Mr Sinclair’s legal team made an application for a stay of proceedings, which would have resulted in them never facing trial.
That application was ultimately dismissed by Judge Andrew Haesler.
During the hearing, Officer A was questioned about material he had viewed on Mr de Belin’s yellow Nokia phone, which was seized in December 2019 when police raided his home.
Officer A viewed SMS messages between Mr de Belin and a contact listed as “Craig Lawyer”.
“Craig Lawyer” was Craig Osborne, a Dragons director who was also Mr de Belin’s lawyer and the messages were protected by legal professional privilege.
In the messages, Mr Osborne gave Mr de Belin an update on his legal team’s preparations for the then upcoming trial.
And the court was told that 190 of the 203 messages between Mr de Belin and Mr Osborne which were viewed by Officer A were covered by legal professional privilege.
After discovering that police had accessed the material, lawyers for Mr de Belin and Mr Sinclair applied for a permanent stay, arguing it robbed them of their right to a fair trial.
Officer A told the court under oath that he believed Mr de Belin’s communications with “Craig Lawyer” related to “Dragons business”.
This is despite admitting knowing that Mr Osborne was employed by RMB Lawyers, who were representing Mr de Belin during his criminal proceedings.
Officer A was medically retired from the force in August 2023.
During a sentence hearing earlier this year, his barrister Peggy Dwyer SC told the court that at the time of his evidence, he was suffering from PTSD and a depressive disorder, having been exposed to disturbing incidents during his policing career.
Ms Dwyer told the court that his mental health “impaired his capacity in terms of the evidence that he gave” and that he was a “man of great character” and a well-respected officer.
Officer A was facing a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail.
Judge Christine Mendes on Friday said that Officer A’s offence “goes to the heart of our system of justice”.
She said that the seriousness of the charges facing Mr de Belin and Mr Sinclair at the time increased the seriousness of Officer A’s offences.
Judge Mendes described his offence as a “basic and crude lie” which was bound to be uncovered.
Officer A was on Friday sentenced to a 12-month intensive corrections order to be served in the community, which requires him to be of good behaviour and report to community corrections.
