A rugby player and cheerleader sent a picture of his penis to a 15-year-old girl and asked for nude photos of her before allegedly sexually assaulting her in his car, a court has been told.
Connor Lind, 23, is facing trial in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court after denying engaging in sexual acts with a 14-year-old girl and a 15-year-old girl.
He pleaded not guilty to four counts of having sex with a minor and one count of intentionally sexually touching a minor.
On Monday, the jury was told that Mr Lind had sent a picture of his penis to the 15-year-old girl and asked for nude photos of her before allegedly sexually assaulting her.
Connor Lind, 23, faced the charges in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court.
In her pre-recorded testimony heard in court on Monday, the then-teenager said she had received the photo on Snapchat.
“I was in shock,” he said.
“I didn’t expect it.”
The complainant said she could not recall ever being “flirtatious, deliberately flirtatious, with (Mr Lind).”
The court heard that the 15-year-old later found herself alone in a car with Mr Lind, who she said kissed her and put his hand down her trousers.
She said the 20-year-old had touched her vagina and offered to pull down her underwear before asking for “just a lick”.
“Please,” the complainant said Mr. Lind asked her.
“I just said ‘no’ and he continued like that,” she told police in an interview referred to in court.
When pressed by Mr Lind’s lawyer, Lisa-Claire Hutchinson, to answer whether she had verbally objected, the complainant stood by her position that she had said “no” more than once.
“I said no, but I don’t remember how many times,” the complainant said.
She said she later regretted not physically intervening by doing something like “pushing him away” when Mr. Lind touched her.
“Looking back and realizing what happened, I felt bad and regretted everything,” the complainant explained.
Mr Lind was 20 years old at the time of the alleged incidents with the teenager.
Mr Lind with his lawyer Lisa-Claire Hutchinson outside court today
The 15-year-old was “a bit tipsy” but “not drunk” at the time of the alleged sexual acts, her friend told the court.
The friend said the complainant told her later that night that she and Mr Lind had “hooked up” in his car and showed her a hickey on her “lower breast” as proof.
The complainant testified that she had told her friends that she had said “no” to Mr. Lind’s alleged sexual advances, but her friend said she could not recall that detail in their conversation.
The friend agreed with Ms Hutchinson’s suggestions that she would likely have remembered the complainant telling her the sexual acts were not consensual and that may have prompted her to tell her parents.
The complainant had been “quite neutral” in telling her friends about the alleged sexual acts with Mr Lind, her friend told the court.
Mr Lind has denied having sexual contact with the 15-year-old boy or a 14-year-old girl with whom he is accused of having had sex.
The prosecution alleges that the attacker had anal, oral and digital sex with the minor when she was 19 years old.
Mr Lind is also accused of putting his hand down the 14-year-old girl’s trousers while they were spooning on the sofa at her parents’ home.
A witness told the court they were spending the night at his home when she “heard noises” and looked to the side to see Mr Lind’s hand between the girl’s legs.
The trial will continue at Downing Centre District Court on Tuesday.
In texts read out in court, the witness told her mother the 14-year-old boy was “on top of him” before telling her “he had his hands down her pants.”
“I can’t hear anything. I’m shaking,” she wrote.
Her mother replied that it was “twisted” and went to pick her up.
Mr Lind was arrested at Sutherland Police Station in August 2021 and does not deny knowing the girls were aged 14 and 15 at the time.
Ms Hutchinson argued that at the time her client was a promising rugby player and university student and had “every reason to uphold the law”.
The trial will continue before Judge John Pickering on Tuesday.
