{"id":737558,"date":"2026-06-15T06:47:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T06:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/737558\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T06:47:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T06:47:13","slug":"former-police-officer-steps-aside-from-country-football-over-sexual-assault-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/737558\/","title":{"rendered":"Former police officer steps aside from country football over sexual assault charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

A women’s football club in central Victoria says a player has stepped aside after sexual assault charges against her were revealed.<\/p>\n

Court documents show former police officer Lucy Lenius is facing four sexual assault charges over an incident in April 2022, in Melbourne’s western suburbs.<\/p>\n

Ms Lenius’s charges related to allegedly intentionally touching a complainant in a sexual manner without consent.<\/p>\n

She has played throughout the season for the Kyneton-based Wedge Tailed Eagles Football Club, including on Sunday, before the club first became aware of the charges on Monday through media reporting, the club said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“The club is reviewing the matter and seeking advice from our governing bodies regarding the appropriate processes to be followed,” the statement said.<\/p>\n

“The player has agreed to step aside from the club and all club activities pending the resolution of the charges.”<\/p>\n

The Wedge Tailed Eagles formed in 2024 after claims of disrespect and inadequate treatment at their former club, and cites its mission as creating a “safe, inclusive and supportive environment” for women and gender-diverse people.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A player with the Wedge Tailed Eagles Football Club has stepped aside over sexual assault allegations.\u00a0 (Supplied: Facebook)<\/p>\n

The club said it would not be making further comments due to it being an active legal matter.<\/p>\n

The Central Victoria Football League has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n

Victoria Police said it would be inappropriate to comment as the matter was before the courts but confirmed the woman was no longer an officer with Victoria Police.<\/p>\n

The case is due to return to Sunshine Magistrates’ Court in November.<\/p>\n

It comes as ABC Regional Investigations examines the behaviour of grassroots football clubs<\/a> in dealing with allegations of abuse and mistreatment.<\/p>\n

After ABC reporting last month, a south-west Victorian football club reversed a decision<\/a> to allow a convicted sex offender to return to the field after he was jailed for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A women’s football club in central Victoria says a player has stepped aside after sexual assault charges against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":737559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,55534,237088,44,7978,6671,356275,46069],"class_list":["post-737558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-country-football","tag-kyneton","tag-news","tag-police-officer","tag-sexual-assault","tag-wedge-tailed-eagles","tag-womens-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=737558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/737559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}