Swans allegations ‘abhorrent’, says women’s lawyer
Two women at the centre of an investigation involving five players from the Sydney Swans AFL club are “in hiding”, their lawyer says.
Two women at the centre of an investigation involving five players from the Sydney Swans AFL club were subjected to “abhorrent” actions, their lawyer alleges.
John Karantzis, acting for two of the three women involved, claimed more than five men were in the hotel room and accused Swans hierarchy of not yet being fully transparent.
Sydney banned five players – Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, Riley Bice and James Jordon – for the rest of the AFL season for breaching club standards at East Melbourne’s Pullman Hotel on Monday morning.
Victoria Police Sex Crimes Squad detectives are investigating. No charges have been laid.
Karantzis said more than five men were in the room but refused to comment when asked if coaches were present.
“It’s more than five, that’s for sure,” he told Melbourne radio station 3AW on Friday.
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Swans coach Dean Cox said at a press conference on Friday that he was unaware of the claim that more men were involved but the club was working with police to determine the details.
Cox also distanced himself from any blame for the Swans’ hotel scandal, as the embattled AFL club rejected claims there were more than five players in the Melbourne room during an alleged sexual assault.
Cox and captain Callum Mills fronted the media in Sydney on Friday morning, speaking publicly for the first time since the five Swans players were suspended for the rest of the season for “breaching club standards”.
“I cannot comment on what happened in the room. It is a police investigation,” Cox said before adding he was not in the room.
The Swans later issued the statement saying only the five players reported were in the room and condemned “misinformation” being circulated.
“We have every reason to consider that reports to the contrary are simply false,” the statement said.
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“We are respecting the process with the relevant authorities and will refrain from commenting on police matters.
“We would also like to take this opportunity to condemn some of the misinformation being reported and are now considering our legal position on those matters.”
Karantzis said the two women he represented were in hiding and fearing for their life.
“With what has been alleged, these women were subjected to the most disgusting actions and behaviour I have ever heard about in my 28 years as a lawyer,” he said.
“These women already had a difficult job.
“And what they were subjected to, it is alleged, was demeaning, abhorrent and simply not moral or acceptable.”
Karantzis, asked if the club had not yet been fully transparent, replied: “That is my understanding. I have got a lot of sympathy for these women”.
“They’ve got a difficult job. And to be humiliated and degraded in this way, it’s just not on, not acceptable.”
Karantzis could not detail specifics, citing the ongoing investigation which he said would take some time to complete.
“The line was crossed and unfortunately, what they’ve been subjected to … I literally cannot say it on the radio,” he said.
“They (the two women he represents) are suffering severe stress and anxiety. They’re actually fearing for their life at the moment.
“The events and behaviours that they were subjected to, these women feel like it’s enough is enough, but they do want justice. They want their voice to be heard.”
Karantzis expected further action from the AFL, which described the club-imposed suspension of the five Swans players as “appropriate”.
“I’m sure once the AFL is fully apprised of what happened, and that may be through the court process … or through their own investigations, the AFL would make make the appropriate sanctions,” he said.
The AFL’s integrity unit is staging its own investigation.
His comments followed news this morning that some players at the centre of the Sydney Swans scandal paid female adult entertainers so they could take drugs off the women’s bodies, it has been alleged.
The ABC said several police sources confirmed some players allegedly paid extra to consume the drugs, reportedly cocaine, from the women’s breasts and buttocks.
Nine Network reporter Gus Macdonald also alleged that “detectives were told players paid women inside the Pullman Hotel to ingest illicit substances off their bodies”.
It was not known how many or which of the players took part.
The revelations come as the woman at the centre of the alleged incident spoke out for the first time.
The woman told the Herald Sun newspaper there were actually nine players in the room at Melbourne’s Pullman Hotel — not just five.
She further claimed that she gave them a discount because they said they were carpenters and could not afford to pay the full rate.
“We did the show for less money than normal because we thought they were carpenters,” she said.
“They told us they were carpenters.”
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
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