Matthew Johns responds to sex allegation

By AAP, 8 May 2009 AAP is a Roar Pro

Tagged:: Channel Nine Footy Show, Cronulla Sharks, Matthew Johns, NRL

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Former NRL star and rugby league television personality Matthew Johns has been forced to respond to an allegation of sexual misconduct while he was a player with Cronulla seven years ago.

Several Sharks players were investigated for sexual assault and cleared by police during an away trip to New Zealand in 2002.

The woman at the centre of the allegations has spoken to ABC’s Four Corners program about the incident with the program to be aired Monday.

The woman says she had group sex with several Cronulla players at a Christchurch hotel and it had left her with psychological damage.

She told the ABC she felt degraded and was traumatised by the incident.

“I only remember one player definitely, it was Matthew Johns. He laughed and he joked and was very loud and boisterous,” she told Four Corners.

“Every time I looked up there would be more and more people in the room and there’s lots of guys in the room watching – maybe two or three were on the bed that were doing stuff to me,” she said.

Johns admitted involvement in the incident but said it was consensual.

“It happened seven years ago and caused great pain to my wife and family,” Johns told Nine.

“It took us a long time to get through it and it pains me that they have to go through it again.”

Johns, who is an employee of the Nine Network and the face of the NRL’s membership drive advertisement, will appear on the network tonight.

The allegations were initially raised in February 2002 by the woman, a staff member of the Racecourse Hotel in Riccarton, where the Sharks stayed before a pre-season match.

The woman had been socialising with the Sharks players, in Christchurch for a warm-up match against the Warriors.

After interviewing all 30 players and 12 officials who made the trip across the Tasman, New Zealand police decided not to lay any charges.

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The Crowd Says (50) | Page 1 of Comments

Eamonn said | May 8th 2009 @ 12:57pm | Report comment

Interesting no-one on the male dominated The Roar that no-one has written about this. We can talk about AFL being bigger than League, and Soccer having it’s name changed to football with real passion…even Union on the wane..etc

I think Matty should step away from the game. He’s a little to close to “Bring back the Biff,” isn’t he?
Don’t tell me Channel Nine will support him to the hilt, the Rugby League community will cheer him louder than ever.
And the message goes around the school yards of Australia once more..that it’s okay, it’s her fault, and our man is sorry.

It’s about time in all our football codes we set the moral bar just a little higher isn’t it? For that matter the whole of society.

Or is it the women’s fault as often seems to be the case in football assault cases.
No convictions, not one, for sexual assault in 28 years suggests otherwise.

And interestingly exactly what type of man wants group sex and what does he get from it?

Please explain?

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Pippinu said | May 8th 2009 @ 1:15pm | Report comment

Eamonn

I share your bewilderment (on pretty much every aspect of this saga, and I should add that AFL has had similar issues in the past, but have worked very hard to educate all draftees, and that’s a good age to be doing such work, maybe even earlier).

In response to your last question – many see football clubs, and the activities of footballers, in particular, the more robust ones, to be fronts for men to act out their homo-erotic fantasies.

I do not necessarily share that view – but something is happening here that you wouldn’t necessarily see, say, amongst colleagues in a law or accounting firm (that are also male dominated).

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Redb said | May 8th 2009 @ 1:34pm | Report comment

Eamonn,

I think part of the reason few posters mention is to avoid being labelled a hypocrit as it would just come across as a dig at RL, when the AFL has had its share of scandals. Mind you a fair bit was made of the North Melb chicken video and how disgraceful it was. the group sex thing scadnal appears a bigger issue with the NRL.

or are we becoming so familiar with these stories it goes with the other 12,329 that appear in the Daily Telegraph?

Redb

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Anand Antony said | May 8th 2009 @ 1:41pm | Report comment

Johns had consensual sex and no reason to charge as per Police. Consenting means BOTH PARTIES consenting. Now the woman wants 15 minutes of fame – conveniently hiding the identity. Typical ABC stuff. Says it all. I am not saying League boys are choir boys – but one should look at the other parties involved also.

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Colin said | May 8th 2009 @ 1:51pm | Report comment

The thing I do not quite understand is that if felt degraded and was traumatised by the incident surely the last thing would want to do is to relive the whole thing and relive it in public.

Being around people who have had this happen it defy belief and make absolutely no sense.

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Pippinu said | May 8th 2009 @ 1:51pm | Report comment

Anand
in terms of the burden of proof on a strict legal reading, you may well be right – but I think it would be a big mistake to try and put the spot light back on the then 19 year old woman.

It is now apparent that quite a few players were involved, and that more materialised as the night wore on (this is not denied by anyone concerned).

So back to Eamonn’s orginal point – who would deem that to be acceptable behaviour?

(there are now a few celebrated cases following this same unfortunate trend, where consensual sex quickly becomes a free for all with many involved – forcing one to conclude that there is a likelihood that the consenual aspect had been foregone long ago)

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whiskeymac said | May 8th 2009 @ 1:54pm | Report comment

This is almost beyond sport. Maybe that’s why it isn’t commented upon much. It’s an uncomfortable arena in any event.
Regardless of the code, the act is degrading and abhorrent but having not been there and there being no charges it’s hard to be in a postion to say anything meaningful on a very sensitive issue. We can, and most likely will, all say that such activity is condemnable but it doesnt equate to a crime if there was consent and a poice investigation resulting in no charges and ultimatley, it’s the lack of consent (ie a crime) which we should really condemn someone for isnt it?

When it comes to crime, for my part, innocent until proven guilty is still the best option. However if you talk about morality and role models then I do not believe there is any place for such behaviour in any code, or profession for that matter. but that’s my moral call. how different is it to all night dwight’s partying and sexual escapades in his heyday – yet the man was almost revered for his night life persona.

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Anand Antony said | May 8th 2009 @ 2:01pm | Report comment

Pippinu,
I can agree with you to some extent. But things could happen the other way too. There could be other reasons for the allegations. In the Coffs Harbour case the detectives were convinced that the allegation of sexual assault was false and wanted to charge the girl. But they were pressurised not to do that because of the political sensitivity. Most of the detectives resigned subsequently. These things came out on an ABC interview. On another note, I hope the ABC presenter will ask specifically whether the sex was consensual and demand a YES/NO answer.

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whiskeymac said | May 8th 2009 @ 2:05pm | Report comment

Pip thats an interesting point on consent… Vicitims of sexual crime often have to endure the allegation that they consented, or in crude ways ‘had it coming’, and it is an aspect of our adverserial common law system which is constantly criticised and under scrutiny. it makes the victim become the victim. hypothetically of course, and all our views will have to be conjecture unless you were there, who is to say that it has taken her this long to come forward because of trauma and shame? they can be very valid reasons. What fame would she get for this? a media payout for her story? why now?

but on the other side

if the case by the police was not able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that consent was lost, having spoken to one and all involved and with no bias (you would hope either way) in the investigations outcome, then it would be hard to suggest otherwise.

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Hemjay said | May 8th 2009 @ 2:06pm | Report comment

And this isa why everyone loves Rugby League. maybe we could rename League to Man Opera.
lets face it you or I will never know what happened in that hotel room that day, we will only be speculating if it was consensual or not. Funny thing is no rugby league player is ever convicted of sexual assaults so what does this tell you?
It tells me that they have extremely good lawyers or the women aren’t quite believeable. But wh are we to judge whos right or wrong when we only know whats in the media hype.

I’d have to question the guy simply for the fact on whats he doing having group sex where theres only one woman. Is this a coming out of some sorts for Matthew and his play buddies. I can hear the oohs on Oxford street from Auckland
Not only is he a great personality and was a good player our beloved Matty is a part time homo erotic groupie on ya son share the man love around.

Sorry just had to get that dig in there, this is all very entertaining and it has done alot to get people talking about league and that can only be good for the game right people soon forget. Lets face it I’m still gonna watch the weekends game even if there’s a few ratbags and deviants who play or have played the game. The police have said there’s no case to answer so its all a storm in a tea cup. As for her wanting her 15 minutes of fame I don’t believe that either if she wanted fame she wouldn’t be hiding behind a bit of fuzz on the telly and having her voice altered.

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