Allegations are part of extortion bid - Warrior
Bodene Thompson says the allegations of group sex made against him are the result of a failed attempt to extort $50,000 from the Warriors player.
Thompson is at the centre of the scandal after Australian stripper Belinda Medlyn told Australia’s Daily Telegraph that, in 2015, he snuck her into the Warriors’ Sydney hotel a night before a game and had sex while a team-mate watched on.
Medlyn said she consented to five secret sex sessions with Thompson and the pair have a 15-month-old son together.
Their son is now at the centre of a dispute over finances to raise him, the newspaper reported. Medlyn said Thompson has been late in some payments of child support and wants more money.
But in a statement released to Nine News Australia, Thompson insisted that he continues to meet all of his financial obligations towards his son.
He said Medlyn only made the allegations public after she tried to extort money from him earlier this year.
‘‘This story has no public benefit except to attempt [to] smear my reputation,’’ Thompson said.
‘‘Although I do not wish to give any more oxygen to this story I believe it is important to put the facts on the table.
‘‘Ms Medlyn approached me in June 2017 threatening that she would expose this story unless I gave her the sum of $50,000.00. I refused to pay her this money on the basis that I was already paying her child support as assessed by the Child Support Agency.
‘‘I love my son and have been striving to have a relationship with him. Ms Medlyn has made this difficult, however, I continue to seek avenues to pursue having a proper relationship with my son.’’
The game Medlyn was referring to was against the Bulldogs on September 6, 2015. The report said Thompson snuck her past coaches at the Pullman Hotel on the eve of the match and had sex in his room as a team-mate looked on.
Warriors chief executive Cameron George on Tuesday admitted the 29-year-old had breached team protocol, which had been dealt with.
George said Thompson and his lawyer had kept them fully informed while the club had notified the NRL Integrity Unit about the matter.
The Warriors boss had also received confirmation from Thompson’s lawyer that he was up to date with child support payments, which had also been verified by documentation from the Department of Human Services in Australia.
Thompson said the reports were hurtful to his family and pleaded for privacy.
‘‘I hope everyone can appreciate and respect my family’s privacy particularly in light of there being a young child involved in this matter and my main objective is to protect him from these indelible articles being circulated,’’ he said.
Thompson’s sister, Trisha Cameron, also leapt to the defence of her brother in a lengthy post on Facebook.
‘‘We all know that when people live beyond their means and blackmail threats aren’t met we can get desperate, especially when it comes to money,’’ Cameron wrote.
‘‘Anyone who knows my brother and our family know we put our family first especially our babies!
‘‘My heart is broken for my nephew not only because of the struggle we have all endured to even have him for visits but for what his future now looks like having to read this all over the internet when he is older.’’
The allegations come at the worst possible time for Thompson, who is off contract at the Warriors at the end of November and is yet to secure a new deal.
It is not the first time he has been involved in an off-field scandal. Last year, he was one of six players stood down for a game after being caught up in the sleeping pills and energy drinks saga.