The Australian Football League is once again having to defend itself over its handling of rape allegations against its players.
An Australian woman has accused former AFL player, Adam Heuskes, of raping her in a London hotel room, while four of his then Brisbane Lions teammates watched on. The woman claims the incident happened in October 1999, when the club was on an end of season trip.
Ten months later, in an unrelated incident, Heuskes faced a charge of raping another woman outside an Adelaide nightclub.
The claims are made in tonight's edition of Four Corners on ABC television.
Heuskes now plays for a suburban Adelaide football club, and has refused to comment, as Alison Caldwell reports.
ALISON CALDWELL: The woman referred to as "Sarah" claims that on October the 6th, 1999, she caught up with a Brisbane Lions team member in a London pub. A friend of her boyfriend since high school, his team was in town on an end of season football trip.
She claims that night at the pub she had to resist the advances of another Brisbane player, Adam Heuskes. With her home some two hours away, her friend invited her to stay in his room that night.
Sarah says she fell asleep, but three hours later that night, she claims she was raped by player while at least four of his Brisbane Lions teammates watched on.
In March this year, Adam Heuskes was named, along with Peter Borgoyne and Michael O'Loughlin, as the three players who contributed to a reported $200,000 payment to the Adelaide woman as part of a confidentiality agreement.