"Ridiculous," an NRL player who backs an ex-teammate in a domestic violence case.
A former teammate from the Melbourne Storm, Curtis Scott, is being tried for domestic violence. An NRL star has testified in the case.
When he was a witness in Curtis Scott's domestic violence hearing on Thursday, Melbourne Storm star Brandon Smith called the claim that Scott broke furniture with a baseball bat "ridiculous."
The two met while they were both playing for the Storm in 2018. They also lived together in the Melbourne suburb of Balwyn with teammates Scott Drinkwater and Brodie Croft.
Mr. Scott is being accused of being physically and verbally abusive to Tay-Leigha Clark, an aspiring athlete and social media star, during their relationship from 2017 to 2019. The relationship lasted about two years.
The 24-year-old is charged with four counts of common assault, stalking or intimidating with the intent to cause fear or physical harm, choking someone without their permission, two counts of assault causing actual bodily harm, and choosing a person with reckless intent.
He said he wasn't guilty.
Mr. Smith told the court at Sydney's Downing Centre that he had never seen the couple fight or do anything else that would make him worry. He did this through a video link.
Mr. Smith said it was "ridiculous" to think that Mr. Scott had ever used a baseball to break things in the house.
"If that was the case, I would have at least done something about it," he said. "It just doesn't sound right."
Mr. Smith said that he didn't want to sign a statement that the police took from him because it was "anti-Curtis."
He told police he lied about signing the statement because his long-term girlfriend, Savannah Syred, was pressuring him to do so at the time.
In 2018, when Mr. Smith lived with Mr. Curtis, he said, both of their girlfriends had stayed in the house more than once.
"It's clear that Savannah is on Tay's side," he said. He said, "It seems like they were always talking and trying to get me to sign the statement."
"I didn't sign it because what was in it didn't make sense to me. I didn't believe all of it. Some of the questions seemed to be against Curtis."
In parts of the unsigned statement that were read to the court, Mr. Smith admits that he saw the two talk back and forth, but he says he never saw the fight get physical.
"I knew that Curtis was jealous in a lot of these fights," the statement was said to say.
"They were together from far away, and Curtis had a hard time trusting people."
Rebecca Beecroft, a police prosecutor, asked Mr. Smith if his job as an NRL player was to be a "good citizen" and report any cases of domestic violence.
"I don't think being an NRL player has anything to do with that, I would do that," he said.
Earlier in the hearing, the police said that Mr. Scott had laid on top of Ms. Clark in October 2018 and put his hands around her neck.
He is also accused of choking her more than once, headbutting her, and pushing her into a wall, which gave her a cut on her arm.
The court was also told that Mr. Curtis once told Ms. Clark, "I'm going to f**king kill you, c**t," over the phone.
He is also said to have crashed his car on purpose into a tree after he broke up with his girlfriend.
The former Raiders and Storm center was supposed to sign a contract with the Parramatta Eels this year, but the deal fell through when he was arrested in January while playing golf at Barden Ridge in Sydney's south.
On Thursday, the court also heard from Mr. Scott's older brother, Lewis, who agreed that a conviction would probably end his brother's playing career.
Lewis, who is six years older than his brother, testified on October 12, 2021, about an alleged incident that happened in a Sydney taxi after a night out for his brother's 21st birthday.
The two brothers and Ms. Clark, along with other people, went on a cruise from Cronulla to Watsons Bay, the court heard.
Lewis Scott denied that Curtis had punched him on the way home, and then Ms. Clark told him that Curtis had been "just as violent" to her.
Ms. Beecroft asked Lewis a lot of questions about the night, like how much alcohol he had and if that could have messed up his memory.
"I had a few drinks. Lewis Scott said, "I wasn't drunk."
"Your brother is 21 years old. You took a cruise from Cronulla to the Watsons Bay Hotel, but you didn't drink much? "I think you were drunk," Ms. Beecroft told the man.
"No," was his answer.
The hearing keeps going.