Former NRL star Manase Fainu has argued another man may have wielded the knife during the bloody stabbing outside a church that landed him in jail.
The 24-year-old was sentenced to eight years behind bars for stabbing a youth leader during a bloody brawl outside a Mormon church dance in October 2019.
A jury found he stabbed a steak knife into the back of Faamanu Levi at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Wattle Grove in Sydney’s south-west.
The four-inch knife punctured Mr Levi’s lungs and caused internal bleeding.
Fainu then swung the knife upwards and made a deep cut on the victim’s eyebrow.
The former rising rugby league star has pleaded not guilty to a charge of wounding a person with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and continues to deny the charges.
Manly Sea Eagles player Manase Fainu was found guilty of wounding a person with intent to cause grievous bodily harm
Jailed NRL star is challenging last year’s jury verdict with his defense team, arguing another man held the knife
On Friday he appeared before the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal to challenge last year’s jury’s “unreasonable verdict”.
His lawyer Mike Smith argued it was still questionable whether the knife had been in Fainu’s possession at the time of the stabbing.
He argued it was possible that one of the other men held the knife that stabbed Mr Levi, or that more than one knife was involved in the altercation.
Mr Smith said the evidence about the identity of the man who wielded the knife was “friendly, a bit unclear” and noted the witnesses had time to influence each other before giving their statements to police.
Crown prosecutor Emma Curran refuted the suggestions, highlighting evidence from two eyewitnesses to the brawl who saw the knife in Fainu’s hand.
“They both proved that the person with the knife was also the person with the slingshot,” she said.
“There is no evidence that anyone else was wearing a sling that night and there is no evidence that anyone else in the melee was armed with a knife.”
Fainu’s lawyer Mike Smith has argued that eyewitnesses could not prove his client was holding the knife
CCTV footage shows Manase Fainu jumping a fence during a Mormon church dance, shortly before a wild brawl
During the trial, eyewitness Tony Quach testified that he saw Fainu looking angry and holding a steak knife with one hand while his other arm was in a sling.
He said he saw the former Manly Sea Eagles player plunge the knife into Mr Levi’s back during the bloody battle in the church car park.
Mr Smith opined that Mr Quach’s evidence was ‘so inadequate’ and ‘so insufficient’ that the jury should not have returned a guilty verdict.
He said witness Kupi Toilalo’s account contradicted Mr Quach’s crucial testimony by providing a “radically different” account of events and where the fighters were.
Since the violent fight took place in a tight space between two cars, he claimed the person wielding the knife would not have been able to slip past Mr Quach.
Yet the prosecutor noted that Fainu was not acquitted by relying more heavily on Mr Toilalo’s evidence about where the man with the knife stood in the brawl.
She said the eyewitness “had a clear view” of a man with his arm in a sling holding a knife moments before it was revealed Mr Levi had been stabbed.
In addition to numerous witness statements, Ms Curran said CCTV footage of Fainu’s arrival and departure was also ‘damaging’ to his case.
“This is not a case based on the evidence of Mr. Quach and Mr. Quach alone,” she said.
“The guilt of the applicant has, we say, been established clearly and beyond reasonable doubt.”
Fainu’s defense has argued that the evidence of witness Tony Quach (pictured) was ‘so inadequate’ and ‘so insufficient’ that a guilty verdict should not have been reached.
Fainu hopes the verdict is overturned, but whether he can return to the NRL remains to be seen
The CCTV footage showed Fainu and four of his friends arriving at a parking lot next to the Mormon church and jumping over the fence into the church grounds.
Fainu testified that he went to the dance to help one of his friends, Uona “Big Buck” Faingaa, collect money that a man owed him for a concrete job.
Mr Smith noted the CCTV footage did not show the former NRL hooker holding a knife either before or after the violent brawl.
High Court judges Mark Leeming, Natalie Adams and Hament Dhanji will announce their decision at a later date.
Fainu was once considered one of the best young hookers in the NRL but he has not played since being charged with the stabbing in late 2019.
The stabbing ended his career at a time when legendary former Manly Sea Eagles coach Des Hasler said the hooker ‘had the world at his feet’.
“I have absolutely no doubt that he was destined for greatness,” the NRL coach said in a statement read out in court as the player was sentenced.
He believed that Fainu, like other young athletes, had experienced a ‘Superman Complex’, meaning he believed no harm could be done to him and that was exacerbated by the pressures of elite sport.
Earlier this year it emerged the 24-year-old was sharing a cell with fellow disgraced NRL player Jarryd Hayne at the Geoffrey Pearce Correctional Center in Sydney’s northwest.