An NRL player at the centre of a perjury case against a former police officer believes the ex-cop's sentence for lying during a rape trial should have been harsher.
Officer A, as he is known for legal reasons, was on Friday given a one-year intensive corrections order, similar to a suspended jail sentence.
The officer pleaded guilty to lying in evidence during the high-profile rape trial of St George Illawarra player Jack de Belin and co-accused Callan Sinclair in 2020.
"It was obviously a little bit light, but it is what it is," de Belin said outside Wollongong District Court following the sentence.
"What's kept Cal and myself so strong throughout this is our innocence."
Officer A lied in the rape trial about what he found in text messages between de Belin and a contact saved as "Craig Lawyer" on a Nokia mobile phone.
He falsely testified the texts only contained "Dragons business" despite knowing they likely contained privileged conversations between the player and his lawyer Craig Osborne.
Despite the seriousness of the perjury offence, Judge Christine Mendes found his significant mental health problems lessened the severity of the sentence required.
"He is a highly fragile, broken man," she said.
The officer had been showing clear signs of undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder for several years leading up to giving the false evidence in February 2020, the judge found.
"Officer A did not seek professional treatment until February 2020 ... he was clearly unwell and suffering," she said.
The judge rejected the prosecution argument the officer had a sophisticated and well-thought-out plan to commit perjury.
But Officer A's conduct did not amount to just "an innocent mistake" and he "doubled down" on his lie when first questioned, Judge Mendes said.
"It was a basic and crude lie without strategy," she said.
First charged in December 2018, de Belin and Mr Sinclair faced two trials before charges were dropped by prosecutors in mid-2021.
The case cruelled the forward's career given the NRL's no-fault stand-down rule, which sidelined him for three years.
De Belin and Mr Sinclair denied sexually assaulting a then-19-year-old woman in December 2018, arguing they had a consensual threesome.
The woman alleged she was attacked by de Belin in a North Wollongong unit and then cried as the men took turns assaulting her.
She said she was attacked after rushing from the bathroom, where she'd been using the toilet when the naked de Belin walked in and began showering.
A Wollongong jury was discharged less than two days into its deliberations in November 2020, having told the court it could "absolutely not" reach a verdict on any charges.
A Sydney jury, hearing the case in mid-2021, spent more than a week before it too became stuck on nearly all charges.
It acquitted de Belin and Mr Sinclair of one charge each, relating to an incident the NRL player testified was accidental, and prosecutors dropped the remaining charges.
Mr Sinclair's father Terry Sinclair told reporters on Friday he believed police had been motivated by a "blatant and concerted" effort to convict a high-profile footballer.
De Belin played 252 NRL games for the Dragons and three games for NSW before announcing he would join the Parramatta Eels in 2026.
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