Police gave legally privileged material from Jack de Belin's phone to prosecutors
A detective investigating rape claims against St George Illawarra NRL star Jack de Belin has admitted to delivering legally privileged material from the footballer's phone to prosecutors.
Under questioning by the rugby league player's barrister David Campbell SC, Detective Senior Constable Benjamin Sutton agreed before the NSW District Court in Wollongong that during an analysis of Mr de Belin's mobile phone he became aware there was legally protected material in the data he had collected.
Jack de Belin is facing trial over the alleged rape of a woman in a Wollongong apartment in December 2018.Credit:Kate Geraghty
"When you served material, you had included in it what was plainly privileged material, hadn't you?" Mr Campbell asked, to which Detective Senior Constable Sutton replied, "yes."
"That shouldn't have happened, should it?" Mr Campbell asked.
Detective Senior Constable Sutton replied, "the serving of the material? In hindsight, no."
Legal privilege protects all communication between a person and their lawyers from being seen by anyone else.
The detective also said he didn't complete a disclosure certificate, a document asserting all legally appropriate steps had been taken when serving documents, when serving the material to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, as well as the defence team, in January this year.
Mr de Belin, 29, and Shellharbour Sharks footballer Callan Sinclair, 23, are facing a jury trial, having both pleaded not guilty to five charges of aggravated sexual assault of a woman in a Wollongong apartment in the early hours of December 9, 2018.
The men both claim the encounter with the woman, then 19, was entirely consensual.
The trial continues.
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Angus Thompson is an Urban Affairs reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.