Sidelined NRL player Jack de Belin has taken the stand to tell the jury a woman "moaned" and "uttered yes" during a threesome they had two years ago.
One the first day of the defence case, de Belin, who lives with his partner Alyce Taylor and young daughter in Shellharbour, entered the witness box to provide his version of events to the jury during his NSW District Court trial in Wollongong.
The St George Illawarra Dragons player, 29, and Sinclair, 23, stand accused of jointly raping a then 19-year-old woman in a North Wollongong townhouse on December 9, 2018 following a night out at Mr Crown.
De Belin and Sinclair have pleaded not guilty to five counts of aggravated sexual intercourse without consent and claim the threesome was consensual.
De Belin's defence barrister David Campbell SC asked de Belin about his life growing up in Cootamundra before he attended boarding school for year 11 and 12 at St Gregory's College in Campbelltown and how he continues to be close with his parents, siblings and grandparents.
De Belin told the court he was scouted by the St George Illawarra Dragons club and became a first grade player in 2011 before being selected to play in his first State of Origin games in 2018.
De Belin said he had not played a game for the club in two seasons, due to court proceedings, but still trained with the squad.
On the day of the Santa Pub Crawl, December 8, de Belin went to teammate Euan Aitken's house for a barbeque about 1pm before the group went to North Wollongong Hotel about 4pm.
He said he drank half a bottle of wine and four drinks at the party before consuming five more at the hotel.
At approximately 11.30pm, de Belin, former teammate Jai Field and Sinclair caught an Uber to Mr Crown, where they continued drinking and dancing until they met the alleged victim.
De Belin told the court the woman, who he had not previously met, "giggled" when he said to her "ain't you a little cutie" as they hugged hello, before she started dancing with de Belin, Sinclair, Mr Field and Matt Clune.
He told the court the woman was dancing "very attention-seeking like, dramatic and over the top" and was dancing in a "flirty" nature towards Sinclair as if she was "really into him".
De Belin claims he said to the woman "me, you and Cal", prompting her to respond "but you have a girlfriend" and he said in response, "I can keep a secret if you can" before she winked back and smiled.
De Belin told the court he believed "she wanted us to perform oral sex on her" after the woman made a v symbol over her mouth with her tongue sticking out, before Sinclair grabbed the woman's breast and a short time later they started kissing.
"I thought she was keen," de Belin said.
"I asked her if she wanted to come back to the apartment with us and she replied 'yes'."
Upon leaving Mr Crown, de Belin said the trio went to the taxi rank because "the apartment was too far to walk back to".
De Belin flagged down a tuk-tuk driver when the trio walked to Crown Street mall, saying to the driver, "you just got to trust me, I don't know the actually address but I know how to get us there".
"Prior to the tuk-tuk driving off, had you at any point said anything about going to Fever?" Mr Campbell asked.
"No," de Belin replied.
De Belin told jurors he remembered "we were conversing having a conversation about sex" while in the tuk-tuk.
Once the trio arrived at the bottom of Gipps Street, de Belin said he paid the driver $50 and he, Sinclair and the woman walked up to the gate of the Gipps Street apartment complex.
De Belin told jurors the woman did not need assistance to get over the fence as she told them "I'm a gymnast" and he claimed she did not fall onto her back as she described in her evidence.
De Belin said after he got into the apartment, where his cousin Jake Lewis lived, through an open window, he flicked on the entrance light and opened the door.
He said they all walked up two flights of stairs to a bedroom, where the woman told the men she needed to use the bathroom.
"Did she say she needed to use the bathroom before?" Mr Campbell asked.
"No," de Belin replied.
De Belin told the court he then wanted to have a cold shower so he took his clothes off and walked into the bathroom naked while the woman was still in there.
He said as he finished about a minute later, he got out, dried himself and walked back into the bedroom with his towel around his waist, and saw Sinclair and the woman "kissing".
"I went over to them ... I proceeded to start kissing [her] as well," de Belin told jurors.
"Me and Callan complimented her on her breasts and she took her top off ... we started kissing and touching her breasts ... for a couple of minutes.
"She sat down on the side of the bed, then I sat down and we started kissing on the bed and she laid back."
De Belin said he proceeded to kiss her body before he took off her shorts and underpants at the same and "she assisted me".
He said as he did that he stood up and saw Troy Martin, who lived at the home, come to the door as the woman said, "Jack someone's there".
De Belin said he closed the door telling Sinclair and the woman, "sorry guys, I will go sort it out" before he went into the bathroom close by and spoke to Mr Martin, saying words to the effect, "f--k sorry about that. Just using Jakie's room, didn't mean to wake you".
He said Mr Martin responded with, "no worries, have a good night" or words to that effect before de Belin went back in the bedroom and said "all sorted guys".
De Belin described how he then started performing oral sex on the woman, before then having vaginal sex.
"She was enjoying it, moaning. It was a normal sexual interaction," de Belin said.
De Belin said Sinclair, who had gotten undressed, then was having oral sex with his penis inside the woman's mouth.
De Belin told the jurors how the two men swapped positions after a couple of minutes two more times.
"She was enjoying it," de Belin said.
"What led you to that belief?" Mr Campbell asked.
"She was moaning, uttering 'yes'."
De Belin said Sinclair then went into the bathroom to have a shower as he was struggling to keep an erection before he and the woman walked over to the desk in the room at his suggestion, where they resumed having sex.
De Belin told the court he "accidentally prodded his penis inside her anus" as it "slipped out" and after seeing the woman "grimace" and say "ow" he apologised and said "help a brother out" before he said she guided his penis back into her vagina.
The pair then moved back over to the bed to have "doggy-style sex" and "missionary sex" before they moved to an ottoman to "finish" at de Belin's suggestion, where he ejaculated on her back.
De Belin told jurors the pair then had a quick shower together before he got out after her and upon re-entering the bedroom, he said the woman told Sinclair "oh my god he's got a girlfriend".
De Belin told the court he said, "don't stress it babe, we are on the rocks anyway".
De Belin said the trio got dressed before the woman called an Uber from inside the apartment. He said they left, climbed back over the fence and got back into the Uber that dropped them at Crown Street, across the road from Heyday Nightclub.
De Belin said he gave money to the woman before they got into the Uber.
He said the car came to a set of traffic light where a friend of Sinclair's and the woman's came over to the car and they spoke before he took a bite of the man's pie.
When walking to the line at Fever Nightclub, de Belin said he got stopped out the front of Spotlight for another photo, which prompted the woman to "say in a sarcastic voice 'oh my god you are so famous'."
De Belin told the court he was speaking to friends while Sinclair and the woman were in the line, and while he was distracted she left telling Sincalir she had to "work" the next day.
As the line was not moving, de Belin said he then left and got a taxi home.
"At any point during the sexual activity that took place that night, did you ever believe she was not consenting," Mr Campbell asked.
"No I did not," de Belin replied.
The trial continues.
