Arabic version: مدرب بركنل السابق يواجه ثلاث تهم اغتصاب

According to ABC News, former Bracknell Football Club coach Josh Adams has been charged with three counts of rape, while the club’s president has resigned from her official duties. Police confirmed that a 44-year-old man from northern Tasmania had been charged over offences alleged to have occurred in April last year.

The man is believed to be Adams, who had not recommitted to coaching Bracknell as of last month. He is scheduled to appear in the Launceston Magistrates Court early next year. It is understood that he has since been stood down from the coaching role and will be replaced.

Northern Tasmanian Football Association president Peter Gutwein said the association had recently been told that a coach had been charged with “a serious criminal offence”. He said the NTFA would not make further comment because the matter was before the courts.

The charges were first reported by an independent media outlet, whose reporting included private messages exchanged between Bracknell Football Club president Nicole Jones and the mother of Adams’s alleged victim. Jones said on social media that she would be “standing down as president and all official club duties with immediate effect”. She said she acknowledged that her comments in the messages were “disrespectful, inappropriate and wrong” and apologised without reservation.

Gutwein said the NTFA was “deeply concerned” by the content of the messages and had referred the matter to the AFL for independent consideration. He said the association recognised that people reporting allegations of sexual violence must be treated with dignity, compassion and respect.