NRL investigating claims of lewd video chat, months after complaint
The NRL has launched an investigation after a 23-year-old woman says high-profile South Sydney Rabbitohs players exposed themselves to her in a video chat in May.
The woman says she complained to the rugby league club in June, but says her complaint went ignored for more than three months.
It's understood the allegation was brought to the attention of the NRL at the start of this week, and it has launched an investigation. South Sydney also says it is investigating the woman's claims.
The woman told News Corp she contacted one of the players over Instagram in May, and on May 26 had a Facebook video chat with several high-profile players. It was during the video chat that two of the stars allegedly exposed themselves, without the woman’s consent.
It's understood the woman first met the players at a bar on the night of the alleged incident. The video call was said to have occurred later that night.
The woman said she emailed the club about the incident on June 1, and was told the matter was being taken seriously.
However, her follow-up emails on June 5 and August 31 went unanswered.
"I feel quite disappointed that my email has not been responded too [sic] since a few months ago," she wrote in her August email, The Daily Telegraph reports.
"I find it disgusting how these boys think they can get away with this crap."
The woman and the players allegedly involved have not been identified.
A club spokesman said an independent investigation found the woman’s follow-up emails had been sent to a spam folder.
"As per the system junk email policy these emails were subsequently routed to a junk mail folder," the spokesman said.
The club did not say why the woman’s complaint was not addressed when she made it three months ago, but South Sydney Rabbitohs chief executive Blake Solly said that, now it was clear the woman had emailed the club multiple times, it would try to talk to her on Friday.
"We are proud of our position on the Code of Conduct and if someone has breached that we want to investigate it," he said.
"Now we have more information we can speak to the players in the morning."
The South Sydney Rabbitohs have been contacted for further comment.