Overview
- Prosecutors formally withdrew rape and sexual touching charges against Tanner Bruhn and Patrick Sinnott at the Geelong Magistrates’ Court, and the magistrate lifted a prior order suppressing Bruhn’s identity.
- Magistrate Kimberley Swadesir ordered the chief commissioner to pay both men’s legal costs, which lawyers described as significant.
- Bruhn’s barrister told the court the complainant admitted she had lied, and a key witness, Harrison Martin, recanted his statements and said he had been instructed on what to tell police; a suppression order on his admissions was also lifted.
- The original allegations centered on an encounter after leaving Geelong’s Alley Cat strip club, with CCTV showing the parties departing at 4:17am and the complainant’s car arriving at a Belmont car park at 4:21am.
- Both men consistently denied the allegations; Sinnott earlier failed to secure name suppression, and Bruhn missed the 2025 season with a listed finger injury but remains contracted to Geelong through 2027.