A promising young rugby player allegedly told an underage teenager he is accused of engaging in sexual acts with that she should delete her social media posts after her parents found out, a court has been told.
Connor Lind, 23, is facing trial in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court, where he has pleaded not guilty to a number of charges and denied engaging in sexual acts with two teenagers.
Prosecutors allege that the former host had anal, oral and digital sex with a girl who was 14 years old at the time.
He is also alleged to have put his hand down the same girl’s trousers while she was on the sofa at her parents’ home on Sydney’s northern beaches.
The girl was in eighth or ninth grade at the time of the alleged crimes.
Lind pleaded not guilty to four counts of having sex with a child and one count of intentionally sexually touching a child.
The jury has been told the alleged victim, 14, said that when her parents realised, Lind told her something to the effect of: “We can’t talk, delete these messages.”
During his pre-recorded testimony, which was played in court on Friday, he was told that Lind never asked him to delete those messages.
Connor Lind, 23, is facing trial in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court, where he pleaded not guilty to a number of charges and denied engaging in sexual acts with two teenagers.
“False,” said the girl.
During cross-examination by Lind’s lawyer, Lisa-Claire Hutchinson, she was told that she had never engaged in sexual acts with Lind.
She repeatedly said, “Fake.”
“You lied when you told your parents about the sexual things you and Connor did,” Ms. Hutchinson asked the girl.
“False,” said the girl.
“You were lying when you told the police about the sexual things between you and Connor,” Hutchinson said.
“False,” the girl said again.
Lind, who was 19 and 20 at the time of the alleged offences, has denied having sexual contact with either girl, the court was told.
He is also alleged to have put his hand down the trousers of another 15-year-old girl while sitting in his car on Dee Why beach.
Lind’s defense has denied the accusation and he has pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual relations with a minor involving the girl.
The jury on Friday also played a police video interview with the second complainant, who alleges that Lind reached into her pants and touched her vagina without her consent.
The court was told they were in the front seat of Lind’s red Jeep parked on Dee Why beach when he kissed her.
Lind, who was 19 and 20 at the time of the alleged offences, has denied having sexual contact with either girl, the court was told.
“It happened so fast, I don’t remember how we got to the kiss, it happened so fast,” she said.
She said she pulled away before he reached into the bottom of her shorts and touched her vagina.
“I was really too scared to try to stop him,” the girl said in the police interview.
The girl told police that Lind asked her to pull down her underwear.
When she said “no,” he said, “I’ll take them down for you,” the girl told officers.
The girl also told the court that he asked her for “just one lick.”
When an officer asked her if she wanted him to put his hand down her shorts, she said, “No.”
She told police that while they were in the car there was no conversation between her and Lind about whether she was consenting to being touched.
She also told officers that before the incident, he sent her a photo of his penis via Snapchat.
The court was told the two girls were close friends and both were aware of each other’s allegations.
During cross-examination by Ms Hutchinson, she said she had discussed with the first alleged victim what allegedly happened in the car with Lind.
She told the court she gave the other girl the gist of her accusation, but did not go into much detail.
“Did you convey to him that you were not giving consent?” Ms Hutchinson asked.
“Yes,” said the girl.
Lind was arrested at Sutherland Police Station in August 2021.
Ms Hutchinson argued that at the time Lind was a promising rugby player and university student and had “every reason to defend the law”.
The trial continues before Judge John Pickering.
