Arabic version: إدانة لاعبي دوري الرغبي في سكون باغتصاب امرأة

According to ABC News, Scone Thoroughbreds rugby league players Hayden Charles Topliss, 37, and Ryan Matthew Hawkshaw, 27, have been found guilty of raping a woman in Scone, in the Upper Hunter Valley, in 2023. The verdicts followed a week-long trial in Newcastle District Court and one day of jury deliberations.

Both men faced four counts of aggravated sexual intercourse in company. Topliss also faced two additional charges of aggravated sexual intercourse and sexual touching. They had pleaded not guilty and claimed there was consent, but the jury found both men guilty on all counts.

The court heard the woman repeatedly said “no” and “stop” during the assault, which occurred in a spare bedroom at Topliss’s house. She told jurors she had consensual sex with Hawkshaw before Topliss entered the room and forced her down. The woman described what happened that night as “torture”.

In her closing address, Crown Prosecutor Charisse Hodgeman said the woman was “unshaken and firm” in evidence that was “inherently believable”. Ms Hodgeman said the woman had given a detailed account and had never imagined there would be group sex. The jury accepted there was no consent and that the woman was repeatedly raped.

Bail for Topliss and Hawkshaw has been revoked, and the pair are now behind bars. They are due to be sentenced in November.