NRLW player Eels will contest a neighbor assault allegation
An NRLW player will fight accusations she assaulted a teenage neighbour in a dispute over a food-delivery order.
Parramatta Eels winger Kate Fallon allegedly assaulted a teenage girl at a unit block in Sydney’s eastern suburbs in July.
The 20-year-old appeared in court under the name Katie Madigan on Wednesday, when her lawyer said she will plead not guilty to a single charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
She did not comment while leaving Waverley Local Court and has been excused from appearing when the case returns in October.
The incident at a Chifley unit block occurred about a week before the NRLW season started.
The teenager was taken to Prince of Wales Hospital, where her father says she was treated with three stitches after suffering a 5cm gash to the head.
The incident was allegedly triggered by a missing $70 food order, which the girl was trying to find when she went knocking on neighbours’ doors.
Kate Fallon can play for the Parramatta Eels as her charge doesn’t activate a no-fault stand-down. (Joel
“She said it all happened so quick, before she knew it she was fighting,” the alleged victim’s father previously told Sydney radio 2GB.
The Eels confirmed the club and the NRL were aware of the incident at the time the allegations were made public.
The charge Fallon will fight carries a maximum of five years imprisonment, below the 11-year threshold which activates the NRL’s no-fault stand-down policy.
She is listed in the Eels line-up for Parramatta’s Sunday clash against Wests Tigers, appearing among the team’s reserves.
