Face of Nation : A woman felt like an NRL player was “trying to get down my throat” with his tongue before he and a friend groped her at a pub, a Sydney court has been told.
The 23-year-old said she was standing beside rugby league prop Zane Musgrove when he placed his arm around her shoulder and pulled her towards his face at the Coogee Bay Hotel in November 2018. “He kissed me very aggressively. I remember feeling his tongue basically trying to get down my throat,” she told Waverley Local Court on Friday.
“That’s what it felt like.” Musgrove, a former South Sydney Rabbitohs prop who was signed to play for Wests Tigers in 2019 at the time of the alleged incident, has pleaded not guilty to aggravated indecent assault in company, indecent assault and common assault. Then-Penrith Panthers reserve grade player Liam Coleman, the son of Souths great Craig Coleman, has pleaded not guilty to aggravated indecent assault in company and indecent assault.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, says Musgrove kissed her a couple of times while holding her. The pair were waiting near the bar for her friend to buy a drink for about 10 minutes.
“I just froze, I felt just because of the difference in size and strength, I went into a, sort of ride it out and get out of the hold,” she said. “I don’t recall saying anything.”
As her friend got closer to the bar, the woman says Coleman turned towards her, “launched forward with both his hands and put them on my breasts”. He later told her “you have nice boobs” and said that implied she must also have “nice” genitals, the woman told the court.
Police say the woman was later indecently touched on the hips and groin by both men and on the breast by Musgrove. During the woman’s evidence, acting magistrate Paul Lyon warned a large group of people in the public gallery about “showing emotion”.
“People have got to be able to say their evidence unfettered without a commentary, giggling or otherwise,” he said. Under cross-examination by Musgrove’s barrister Phillip English, the woman rejected the suggestion she kissed Musgrove or reciprocated his kisses. She also rejected the suggestion Musgrove didn’t use his tongue when he kissed.
“Well, he did that night,” she said. The court earlier heard that Musgrove claimed “that’s bullshit. I’m being stitched up” when told by a police officer a woman had made a statement about the night.
Later, Coleman and his mother met the same officer at Maroubra station before he was placed under arrest. “He said ‘I don’t believe this, I’m getting arrested’,” Senior Constable Kelly Gatt told the court on Friday. Craig Coleman accompanied his son into the courtroom followed by a long line of friends including NRL hall-of-famer Bob McCarthy and boxing trainer Johnny Lewis.
