A Fiji national rugby sevens player Isake Katonibau has been charged with serious assault and remanded in custody.

Fiji Village reports he is alleged to have assaulted a police officer on Sunday after the officer came across a group of men fighting in Suva.

Katonibau is alleged to have punched the officer twice in the mouth.

The case has been adjourned until Monday.

A rugby sevens star has been accused of the rape of an up-and-coming singer in his native Kenya.

According to local media reports, World Series Sevens regular Frank Wanyama and Alex Olaba, who is also a rugby player, have been arrested and charged with the alleged gang rape of singer Wendy Kemunto.

Both players have been charged with raping the singer at an apartment complex in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi following a birthday party in February.

They deny the charge and insist any sexual activity was consensual.

Kemunto, who first aired her accusations on Instagram, says she is pregnant following the alleged assault.

She earlier detailed her harrowing experience, claiming she “slipped in and out of consciousness” after being drugged.

She was unable to fight off the players and didn’t report the alleged rape to authorities until much later because of “the profile of one of these rugby players [Wanyama].”

Wanyama, who plays for the Kenya Harlequins, has been suspended by his club pending investigations by local police.

Earlier in the month, the Kenyan Rugby Union released a statement on the allegations.

“The Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) has been made aware of reports about alleged sexual misconduct involving a contracted Kenya Sevens player.

“The matter will be reviewed as soon as practicable by the KRU, in line with existing procedures for all contracted players,” the statement said.

“It is also important to note that with a report having been made to law enforcement authorities, the KRU cannot comment further about the allegations pending the outcome of investigations.

“KRU wishes to state that it does not condone sexual harassment or any other activity that goes against the spirit of World Rugby Regulation 20 and remains committed to continued respect, empowerment and increased participation of women in all aspects of the sport of rugby.”

Standard Media reported Wanyama and Olaba appeared in the Milimani Magistrate Court on Tuesday (NZT).

They were released on bail of 500,000 shillings ($7000).

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Two rugby players will be arraigned in court this morning to answer to charges of gang-raping a musician in Kilimani early this year. The woman is pregnant

If convicted, the two Kenya Harlequin FC players will face at least 15 years in prison and, depending on the circumstances, they could face life imprisonment.

Frank Wanyama and his unidentified colleague were arrested on Friday after the DPP Noordin Haji approved the charges. The rugby players had previously admitted having sex with the woman in an apartment but said it was consensual.

In February, the musician on social media accused Wanyama and his colleague of drugging and luring her into his house where they repeatedly raped her. She claimed that the two raped her on February 10, on her birthday.

In her police statement, the musician said she tried to confront Wanyama with the allegations but he dismissed her telling her to look for a lawyer in case she decides to go public. Wanyama accused her of attempting to extort him.

Two rugby players Lawrence Frank Wanyama and Alex  Mahaga Olaba were arraigned in Milimani Magistrate Court where they were charged with gang-rape on Monday morning.

The duo were accused of intentionally and jointly raping a local singer on February 11 at Seefa apartments in Highrise in Nairobi.

 While appearing before the Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi the two denied charges which contravenes section 10 of the Sexual offenses Act.

Wanyama and Olaba were then freed 1million shillings bond with a surety of the same amount or a cash bail of 500,000 shillings.

Defence counsels Wafula simiyu and Ombui Ratemo pleaded for lenient bond terms saying the two are contracted players of the National Rugby team hence they are not a flight risk.

Lawyers further persuaded the court for the duo to have their passports returned since they underwent DNA tests already, and they will be required to represent the country in the fourth coming rugby games.

The two, who play for Kenya Harlequin FC were arrested after a woman  identified in court as W. A. claimed that one of the players who was her friend raped her after  she had agreed to go to his house for her birthday on February 10.

But while talking about the incident on the social media, the complainant took to her twitter page to narrate her experience in more profound way but put in another dimension to the story.

She alleged player drugged her and then raped her with his friend, whom she did not know.  What would ensue would be another claim that she was pregnant she wanted the players charged.

She said:

 “I was slipping in and out of consciousness maybe due to shock but I was helpless. I couldn’t fight two men who play rugby professionally, obviously they were stronger hence I let them do whatever they wanted to do the whole night.”

 “I could’ve reported the case to police but I was in denial, shock, pain and exhausted! I didn’t want to report also because of the profile of one of these rugby players,” she added.?

 

Updated

April 11, 2018 06:18:28

Before dawn on a Saturday in May last year, police in Canberra identified a group of men on CCTV.

Two of them had played in the Anzac rugby league Test the previous night.

They were then New Zealand captain Jesse Bromwich and fellow Kiwi international Kevin Proctor. After losing the game they were now doing lines of cocaine outside a city nightclub, just hours after playing for their country.

“They’re both really, you know, really top-quality players,” Adrian Crowther, who partied with the footballers that night, said.

Mr Crowther was a big fan of Bromwich’s club Melbourne Storm.

He had been to the Test that night and bought the players drinks as a sign of his appreciation.

One of the players’ entourage asked Mr Crowther if he had any cocaine. It did not take long for him to get his hands on some.

“Let’s do this,” Mr Crowther told the men.

“I just wanted to get on it with these guys,” Mr Crowther told 7.30.

“I thought it was just a great opportunity to carry on drinking with them.”

‘They had some lines and we stood around chatting’

CCTV footage obtained by 7.30 shows the group outside the nightclub joking, play-fighting and snorting lines of cocaine off Mr Crowther’s phone.

“They had some lines and we just stood around chatting,” Mr Crowther said.

“They were real drunk,” he said.

“I remember Jesse swaying ’cause he’s such a big man.”

According to a statement of facts, police observed Bromwich and Proctor on CCTV consuming a white powder that was later tested and found to be cocaine.

Under ACT law, the possession and supply of drugs such as cocaine is illegal, but using it is not an offence.

When police arrived, neither player was searched or arrested. Mr Crowther said the officers shook hands with the players and then left.

But Mr Crowther was taken to the city watch house.

He was charged with cocaine and MDMA possession. He was later convicted and fined $5250.

The players were suspended and fined by their clubs, but Mr Crowther said he did not think it was fair they walked free.

“I thought it was wrong,” he said.

“I’m not making excuses for what I did but, you know, we should all be tarred with the same brush.”

The timing for rugby league, could not have been worse.

It came after the Titans were engulfed in the 2015 cocaine scandal that threatened to destroy the club.

Seven of the Titans’ current and former players faced criminal charges for supplying cocaine. There were calls for the Titans’ licence to be revoked.

Three of the players, including former State of Origin player David Taylor, junior player Jamie Dowling and former back Joe Vickery, pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of possession although none had convictions recorded.

Four others — star Greg Bird, hooker Beau Falloon, retired representative forward Ashley Harrison and back Kalifa Faifai Loa — all had their charges dropped due to lack of evidence.

Two years later, the Titans’ then co-captain Proctor was doing cocaine on the street.

Former league player ran cocaine syndicate

A 7.30 investigation has examined the syndicate that supplied cocaine to footballers across three codes. It was run by former rugby league player John Touma, who played for the Sydney Roosters in the 1980s.

“I got on very well with him,” former NRL player Mario Fenech told 7.30.

“He’s a Mascot fella and I played for Mascot as well.”

Long after his football career had ended, Touma reinvented himself on the Gold Coast.

He had a wine business that was a front for his cocaine dealing. He was known to customers as “Leather”.

Leather’s network would drive to Sydney to pick up cocaine and sell it across south-east Queensland, with the epicentre on the Gold Coast.

Jim Keogh was a Gold Coast police commander investigating the cocaine trade and he uncovered deep connections to rugby league.

“We found a number of footballers may have been involved in the use of cocaine as well as organised crime figures,” Mr Keogh said.

“Touma was an ex-rugby league player,” Campbell McCallum, a criminal lawyer who defended six of the seven Titans players associated with the syndicate, said.

“He’d been involved with club functions with the Titans and he was a person who had a son who ran out at the start of one of the games.”

One of Touma’s drug couriers was Matthew Seers, a star fullback who played for the North Sydney Bears and New South Wales in the 1990s.

“No-one caught him because he was super quick,” Fenech, who played alongside Seers at North Sydney, said.

“He turned and chased and tackled Brett Mullens in a semi-final in ’94 and caught him. Unbelievable,” former Bears front rower Josh Stuart, who still counts Seers as a friend, said.

He became aware of Seers’ cocaine habit in 1997 during an end-of-season celebration.

“It’s unfortunate, he made a couple of bad decisions,” Stuart said.

“Those bad decisions turn to life-long decisions because he become addicted to the stuff.”

‘I had plenty of mates in my era that loved drugs’

Fenech says cocaine use was rife among players in the 1980s and 1990s and he was regularly offered drugs.

“I don’t want to say names but I had plenty of mates in my era that loved drugs,” he said.

“I had people come up to you … with the cocaine and I used to say ‘no it’s not for me, I don’t have that’.

“Girls would offer it to me and look at me like I was an idiot because they couldn’t believe that I knocked it back.”

Seers tested positive for cocaine while playing for the Bears and briefly went to rehab. He spent time living with another North Sydney teammate on the New South Wales central coast but struggled to stay clean.

Stuart said the North Sydney club could have done more to help Seers.

“I think it was handled very poorly,” he told 7.30.

What Touma did not know was the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission was tapping his phone and had a listening device inside his apartment.

The syndicate came crashing down in December 2014 when the crime commission raided his apartment.

Inside investigators found five mobile phones and $6000 in cash.

By chance, partway through the raid, Seers arrived at the apartment in Touma’s car. Investigators found cocaine under the driver’s seat.

In February Touma was sentenced to nine years in prison. Seers was sentenced to four years’ jail over his role in the syndicate. In a court statement, Seers said he “made some stupid decisions”, was unemployed and abusing cocaine after he retired from football.

Stuart is now part of a group of ex-Bears players who are planning to visit Seers in prison and want to support him once he is released.

“In 1994 he’s a superstar and 2018 he’s in jail,” he told 7.30.

Former Titans star Preston Campbell also played against Seers.

“When you hang up the boots and you take that jumper off you’re a different person,” he told 7.30.

“You’re not that star that’s played for his country, played for his state, that’s won a grand final. You’re just Matt Seers, and it’s a very scary prospect to look at that.

“You turn around and you think ‘where’s it all gone and what am I going to do now?'”

Drugs a ‘societal problem not limited to sport’

Next month another former Titans player will front a Gold Coast court on 10 counts of supplying cocaine.

He will be represented by Mr MacCallum.

“He will certainly be defending a number of the charges that are before the court,” Mr MacCallum told 7.30.

The Titans declined to answer questions related to this story.

The NRL said it had increased its drug testing since the Canberra nightclub incident, with more than 2,500 tests conducted over the 2017 season.

It claimed that its illicit drugs policy was one of the toughest of any sporting code.

An NRL spokesman said illicit drug use was a “societal problem not limited to professional sport” and “players are like any other people and will make mistakes, and we are realistic that sometimes those mistakes will involve drugs”.

Topics:

rugby-league,

cocaine,

drug-offences,

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First posted

April 11, 2018 06:09:07

 

A woman who claims she was sexually assaulted by a rugby player and his friend has recorded a statement at the Kilimani DCI. She has given a detailed narration of how she was raped by the player and his colleague on February 10.

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The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) says it is treating the allegations very seriously. 

Kenya Harlequin FC on April 3 released a statement saying they are aware of the sexual assault allegation levelled against their player. “A formal complaint has been lodged and the relevant authorities are investigating the matter,” says a statement from the Club. 

Woman went public on social media

The woman claims she conceived after the rape incident and wants the player to be charged in court.

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A team of detectives visited the player’s house on Monday but did not find him. “He did not sleep in his house for two days now and if you see him let him know we need to talk to him,” said an investigator aware of the case.

The incident was made public after the victim narrated on Instagram how two men – one of them a rugby player she named – drugged her before, lured her into a house and repeatedly raped her. 

She claims the incident happened on February 10, 2018 – on her birthday. She said she was unconscious and when she woke up, she found the player and his friend sexually assaulting her. She later found out she had conceived as a result of the ordeal. The woman further reveals that she tried to confront one of the men but he dismissed her and told her to look for a lawyer in case she decides to go public.

After sharing her story on Instagram, the player allegedly called her telling her to bring down the post.

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“On 10th February 2018 (my birthday) I was raped by two men,” she posted.

She claimed the player and his friend took turns in raping her and had the audacity to even let her rest before resuming.

“I was slipping in and out of consciousness may be due to shock but I was helpless. I couldn’t fight two men who play rugby professionally, obviously they were stronger hence I let them do whatever they wanted to do the whole night.”

Fearful about reporting the matter to the police

The woman explained that she was afraid of reporting the ordeal to the police because she couldn’t face what happened.

“I could’ve reported the case to police but I was in denial, shock, pain and exhausted! I didn’t want to report also because of the profile of one of this rugby players,” she wrote.

 “I still don’t want to report coz of the toll it had had on me…more than a month later I found out I am pregnant from the ordeal guys. Reporting a case now will not have any impact because of the way the system is set up mostly helps the rapist never the victim,” she added.

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She went on: “I tried reaching out to …to take responsibility for his actions…as I don’t know his other friend and I wouldn’t know the father to this child. I even threatened him to go public but he told me to hit the road and look for a lawyer.”

She was later encouraged and asked to report the matter to police, which she did on Monday 2nd April.

Kenya Rugby Union responds

After the issue went public, the Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) said it will handle the matter according to its policies.

“The Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) has been made aware of reports about alleged sexual misconduct involving a contracted Kenya Sevens player. The matter will be reviewed as soon as practicable by the KRU, in line with existing procedures for all contracted players,” said the union in a statement.

“It is also important to note that with a report having been made to law enforcement authorities, the KRU cannot comment further about the allegations pending the outcome of investigations.”

The union said it does not condone sexual harassment or any other activity that goes against the spirit of World Rugby Regulation 20 and remains committed to continued respect.

A British man charged with assault over an incident that left Australia’s Commonwealth Games rugby sevens captain with a fractured skull is understood to be a backpacker from Newcastle.

James Stannard is “doing very well” but has been ruled out of the coming competition as a result of the injury that required emergency hospital treatment in the early hours of Friday morning.

There will be “no long-term damage” to Stannard and it is understood he will be out of hospital soon, according to coach Andy Friend.

Police said two men had been talking outside a kebab shop in the coastal Coogee suburb of Sydney when one allegedly punched the other in the head without provocation, sending him to the ground with a single blow.

Sam Oliver, 22, who is reportedly from Newcastle and had been backpacking in Australia, has been ordered to appear in court charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm on April 19.

Talking about Stannard, Mr Friend told reporters: “He’s doing really well. He’s had a clearance from the neurosurgeon, the ear, nose and throat specialist as well.

“Every indication at this point in time, is that there’ll be no long-term damage to James, he will be fine.

“There was a suggestion he may even leave hospital today.

“I think at this point in time, personal choice of James and his family is that he’ll look to stay another day, but all the indications are very, very positive for James, which is the most important thing.”

Ben Whitaker, a general manager at Australian rugby’s governing body, said Stannard was an “extremely important” member of the squad and they had been left “shocked” by the incident.

The captain, team mates Lewis Holland and Ben O’Donnell and coach Andy Friend had been out for dinner before the alleged attack, he told media.

In the seconds after Stannard was assaulted the trio chased down his assailant and held him until police arrived.

“They did what they had to do, such an unfortunate incident and something they had to do due to the state James was in,” Whitaker said.

Stannard was made captain of Australia’s Commonwealth Games side earlier in March after skipper Lewis Holland was ruled out due to a hamstring injury.

The 35-year-old was expected to retire at the end of this season, having played for Australia since 2010.

In his debut year, Stannard captained the side to victory at the London Sevens at Twickenham and played for Australia at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the 2016 Rio Olympics.

With matches beginning on April 14, the Gold Coast competition would have been Stannard’s third Commonwealth Games.

New South Wales Police inspector Steven Egbers told the Sydney Morning Herald on Friday: “Two men were talking with each other, seemingly having a nice conversation, and then one of the males has punched the other male in the head area, causing him to fall to the ground, and he’s hit his head in the pavement.

“When he fell to the ground he’s done some damage to the side of his head, and the offender ran off.”

Oliver was been bailed on “strict” conditions until his appearance at Waverley Local Court, police said.

RA said Stannard and a group of players and team management had been at a fast-food outlet following the dinner for departing coach Andy Friend when the alleged attack occurred.

Two players in the squad, including the side’s regular captain Lewis Holland, and Friend detained the man shortly afterwards and held him until police arrived, RA said.

Police said the incident happened at about 3.10am outside a kebab shop in Coogee, a coastal suburb of Sydney, when he was “punched in the head in an alleged unprovoked assault”.

Stannard was taken to St Vincent’s Hospital in the city centre where he was understood to be “in a stable condition with head injuries”.

The suspect had been charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The Briton has been bailed on “strict” conditions until an appearance at Waverley Local Court on April 19.

Stannard, who competed for Australia at the 2016 Olympics, was made captain of Australia’s Commonwealth Games side earlier this month after skipper Lewis Holland was ruled out due to a hamstring injury.

Ulster and Ireland rugby players Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding have  been found not guilty of raping a female student at a house party two years ago, with Jackson also being found not guilty of sexual assault.

Two other defendants in the same case have also been found not guilty on all charges.

Blane McIlroy has been found not guilty of exposure, and Rory Harrison has been found not guilty of withholding information and perverting the course of justice.

The jury, made up of eight men and three women, deliberated the verdict for three hours and 45 minutes before returning unanimous not guilty verdicts to all charges.

Jackson, 26, from Belfast and Ulster teammate Olding, 25, also from Belfast, denied raping the same woman – then 19 years of age – following a night out in June 2016. Jackson, a 25-time capped Ireland international, also denied a further charge of sexual assault.

McIlroy, 26, from Belfast, denied exposure while Harrison, 25, from the same city, denied perverting the course of justice and withholding information.

The families of all four men were in the public gallery to hear the jury foreman read out the not guilty verdicts to each charge individually.

The nine-week case that began in January saw the defence argue that the woman made a false allegation of rape because she regretted consenting to group sex and feared that she may have been filmed with the images then potentially ending up being posted on social media.

The prosecution case was that Jackson allegedly pushed the woman down on his bed and vaginally raped and digitally penetrated her, before Olding allegedly walked into the room where the woman was forced to perform a sex act on him. It was alleged that McIlroy then entered the room, naked and holding his penis, with the woman then running out of the room.

The prosecution also alleged that Harrison “tried to cover up or manage” the woman, and took her home in a taxi.

A lawyer for the Public Prosecution Service told the trial that Jackson had “not sought her consent and indeed used force to achieve his aim”, and that Olding entered the bedroom while the complainant was being raped and joined in.

In the hours after the alleged incident, the woman attended a sexual health clinic and a sexual assault referral centre before making her first statement to the police the following day.

Under cross-examination, Jackson repeatedly denied he had forced the girl to perform sex acts against her will.

He said the complainant was one of a number of women that returned to his house after meeting the rugby players and their friends in a Belfast nightclub the day after they returned home from Ireland’s tour of South Africa.

Jackson said the woman had followed him to his bedroom on two separate occasions for consensual sexual activity.

Olding said he was “in complete control” of his actions following a day of heavy drinking with Jackson and others, and that he was “100 per cent sure” what had happened had been consensual.

Neither Jackson nor Olding have played for club or country since they were charged last July. Jackson made his Ireland debut in 2013 and was the second-choice fly-half at the time of being charged, while Olding made his international debut in the same year and has four caps to his name, with the most recent coming on the tour of South Africa alongside Jackson.

Additional reporting by Reuters

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