Group sex has destroyed my life: woman

A woman at the centre of sex allegations against Cronulla players says her life has been destroyed by the incident and she's wanted to kill some of the players.

The woman, who does not wish to be identified, says a night in which she had group sex with several Cronulla players at a Christchurch hotel seven years ago has left her with psychological damage and led her to abandoning her studies.

The New Zealand Accident and Compensation Commission has found she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, has funded treatment for her and given her a weekly payment, ABC Television has reported on Monday.

Psychiatrists reported that she was suicidal, had cut her wrists several times and bought a rope to hang herself.

She told the ABC TV 4 Corners program she felt degraded and traumatised by the incident and despised the players involved.

Ex-Cronulla player Matthew Johns has admitted involvement in the incident but says it was consensual.

Among new allegations aired on Monday, the woman said two men rubbed their penises in her face while other men stood watching and masturbating.

Six men had sex with her while another six looked on. There was always someone touching her, she said.

"For years and years afterwards I was drinking a lot, crying a lot and losing a lot of friends and doing quite destructive things to myself and other people," she told the program.

"At the end of it, I wasn't so much drinking heaps and heaps, I was more scared to go out of the house."

She said the destructive period lasted about four or five years and she was now speaking out to let the wives and girlfriends of those involved know what they had done.

"I was so angry and I wanted their lives destroyed like mine was," she said.

"If I had a gun I'd shoot them right now.

"I hate them. They disgust me. For all that they did, I hate them so much."

The woman said Matthew Johns came up to her after the incident and apologised for others coming into the room.

Christchurch police Detective Sergeant Neville Jenkins said that in the years after the incident he saw the woman "struggling with life".

"I didn't know her prior to this episode, but presumably I'm led to believe this is as a result of what happened to her at that time," he said.

She had called him several times over the years in a "distressed state," he said.

The program said the NZ case was just one of a number of incidents in which women had been similarly mistreated.

It said incidents of group sex historically had been perceived as "a tool" to facilitate team bonding, and such degrading treatment of women persisted in some quarters of the sport.

NRL CEO David Gallop, on behalf of the game, issued an apology for the NZ and other incidents.

"The distress of the victims spoke for itself and to the extent that the game can apologise for the actions of individuals then I offer that apology unreservedly," he wrote in the statement released after the program.

He said the program "dealt with issues that I would hope everyone in the game finds appalling and unacceptable".

"It is important, however, to understand the very substantial efforts the NRL, the clubs and the players have made in changing attitudes, particularly since 2004.

"It is also important to recognise the clear actions taken by the NRL* and our clubs against those who breach our codes of conduct."

aap 12 May 2009

*NRL - Acronym for Neanderthal Rugby League. A primal game (with origins to Neanderthal Man) that amuses natives with a ball for hours, with the majority of its players with a combined IQ of Room Temperature in Alaska.

As stipulated, it is acceptable to rape women for sport.