The former teammates of Michael Quinn, an amateur rugby union player jailed for 12 years in the US for attempting to rape a six-year-old boy, have said they have suffered abuse owing to their previous association with him.
Quinn, 33, who was an IVF embryologist in Melbourne, was arrested by US federal agents in May when he went to a Los Angeles hotel carrying a video camera and US$260 to pay a pimp. Instead, he walked into an undercover sting.
On Tuesday, a weeping Quinn was sentenced by US District Court judge John Walter, who labeled his plan “absolutely disgusting” and “despicable.”
Quinn had been in the US with his teammates from the Melbourne Chargers to play in the gay-friendly Bingham Cup rugby union tournament in Nashville, Tennessee.
Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) on Tuesday night, a Chargers member, Matt Arthy, said: “It feels like I’ve had family members inferring guilt by association.”
“The thing that really — not hurt me — but made me feel really down and out is you wake up at 2am to a buzz on your phone on your bedside table and you get the subject line of ‘child fiddling faggots,’” Arthy said.
“Why would I associate with people like that [Quinn]? I know I don’t. The club doesn’t either,” he said.
Another player was sent a message that read: “What sick monsters do you have in your team, someone knew, I’m sure.”
Eight Melbourne Chargers have left the team owing to the abuse they received after Quinn was arrested. The club shut down its Facebook page for a short time.
Another player, Leon Kennedy, said that the team had been shocked to find out about Quinn’s criminal behavior.
His arrest in the US was the first the team knew of his offending, Kennedy said.
He described how a SWAT team had knocked on the door of the house the teammates had been sharing to seize Quinn’s belongings.
“It was the biggest shock of my life and I remember sitting there starting to shake — it completely came out of nowhere,” Kennedy said. “You’d go out to social situations; he had regular relationships. That’s probably why it was such a shock.”
Another teammate, Dan Syrus, described Quinn’s behavior as a “gut-wrenching betrayal.”
“Someone infiltrates something we hold dear as a club and they take advantage of it, and try and use it for whatever activities that they want to do from a depraved perspective,” Syrus said. “The counselors, psychiatrists — some players couldn’t play for some of the games on the days because they were just still emotionally shaken from this.”
Sponsors have also walked away from the team.
“It just hurts,” Arthy said. “It really does.”
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