St George Illawarra chairman Craig Young has been reprimanded by the club for providing a reference on official club letterhead for Brett Finch during his court proceedings.
Finch, a former NRL player, has pleaded guilty to sharing child sexual abuse material in an attempt to obtain cocaine.
“As a club, we had no idea about it,” Dragons CEO Ryan Webb said. “It’s an error of judgment on Craig Young’s behalf to put it on club letterhead. I have spoken to Craig, he’s admitted he has made a mistake.”
Young is poised to step down as chairman, and will be replaced by Andrew Lancaster. Webb said the move was not related to the Finch issue.
“That’s just a [rotational] cycle that will happen, that was already in play,” he said.
Young, a Dragons legend as a player, coach and administrator, apologised for his actions.
Brett Finch and the letter from Craig Young.Credit:Twitter, Oscar Colman
“It was an error in judgment to put this statement on club letterhead,” he said. “I was asked to provide a letter of support to a family friend who I believe made a serious mistake but is a fundamentally decent person.
“I should not have connected the club to this matter and would like to apologise to members, fans, sponsors and all other stakeholders for any distress caused.”
The NRL said in a statement: “The NRL is not in a position to comment on the matter until legal proceedings are concluded.”
Finch, 41, faced a sentencing hearing in a Sydney court this week after pleading guilty in August to one charge of using a carriage service to transmit, publish or promote child abuse.
He was arrested in December 2021 as one of eight men accused of being involved in a telephone chat line on which police alleged sexual abuse of children was discussed and abuse material was swapped. Six other charges against Finch were withdrawn in August.
Finch told the court he left “twisted” messages on FastMeet – a service for gay men – as he thought “hypersexualised” users could be a last resort to get drugs.
He said his only goal in leaving the messages was to obtain cocaine, telling the court he was introduced to the service by drug dealer connections.
Finch viewed transmitting the messages as a “lead-in” to his ultimate goal of getting drugs, the court was told.
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