AFL star Tanner Bruhn is set to play in Geelong’s season opener against Gold Coast, 17 months after being falsely accused of rape by a woman who admitted lying along with at least one key witness.
Bruhn, 23, was stood down by the AFL and forced to miss an entire season while fighting the sexual assault and rape charges that were dropped by prosecutors in November last year, sparking calls for a criminal investigation into the witnesses and complainant.
Geelong Coach Chris Scott said on Tuesday Bruhn had suffered “one of the most egregious injustices I can think of in the game”, and said it was “fantastic for him to get out there and be able to concentrate on footy”.
“To put that behind him, I think is positive for everyone,” he said.
The AFL Players Association criticised the woke league’s decision to stand Bruhn down during the investigation, where his identity and links to football were suppressed by the court, calling the decision “premature and disproportionate”.
After the charges were dropped Bruhn’s lawyer Anna Balmer said her client had been through a “nightmare”, and called for those responsible for the false allegations to be “held to account” by police, the Herald Sun reported at the time.
“We should all hope that Victoria Police properly investigate what appears to be an attempt to pervert the course of justice by at least one, if not two prosecution witnesses,” she said.
She spoke out after eminent criminal barrister Dermot Dann KC appeared in Geelong Magistrates Court for Bruhn, saying his client had “been to hell and back” and almost lost his career, calling the case a “horrible stain on the criminal justice system”.
“It was a case where the evidence in the early stages of the committal revealed that when it came to these allegations of rape and sexual assault, the complainant had admitted that she had lied,” Mr Dann told the court.
“It was a case where another prosecution witness admitted in his evidence that he told lies to police and told lies in the court. It was a case where that same prosecution witness admitted in his evidence, it was the complainant who had told him to lie.
“It’s a case where he’s had to endure attacks on social media from people who seem to have absolutely no understanding or grip or grasp of the presumption of innocence.”
Bruhn and friend Patrick Sinnott, who had similar charges dropped, were hit with the false allegations by a woman who claimed she was attacked by the AFL star after meeting him outside a Geelong strip club in February 2023.
But the case collapsed when a key witness cracked under cross-examination in court, claimed to have a neurological disorder, and then the next day admitted to lying in court and in his police statement.
He then told the court he could barely remember the night in question and that his statement to police was made up of details told to him by Bruhn’s accuser, and testified that she had told him she lied to police about the allegations.
Victoria Police were also criticised over its handling of the case, which involved a conflict of interest, inconsistencies between the allegations and evidence, and drawn out investigation.
The men were not interviewed until September 2024, and not charged for another five months after that, and a Geelong’s sexual offences and child abuse investigation team detective told the court witnesses had described the complainant as “manipulative” and had told them differing accounts of the night.
The false accuser even said in her statement to police: “Sometimes when I am drunk I see things that haven’t happened. I get confused.”
Header image: Left, right, Tanner Bruhn (Geelong Cats, Instagram).
The post AFL star returns after lying woman’s false rape allegation almost ruined his life first appeared on The Noticer.
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