Rising Port Adelaide Power star Sam Powell-Pepper has been suspended from playing in the AFL after he drunkenly groped a woman using “inappropriate contact” at a bar during a night out on April 8.
The woman, aged 20, told 7 News Adelaide: “We’re all just dancing on the platform of Mr Kim’s and I feel like a hand go, not just on my butt, like down my skirt, like almost on to my undies… Then I feel my arm grabbed so aggressively, that I hit my face on to his chest. I look at him and I’m like, ‘what’s your problem’ and then he pushes me.”
While the woman didn’t report the incident to police, she did take her complaint to Port Adelaide Football Club and the AFL, who have both dealt with the matter internally. Powell-Pepper initially received a one match ban from the club’s leadership group, before ruling himself out of contention for a second match last weekend as the AFL did their own investigation.
Now, the AFL has handed down another one-game ban, meaning the 20-year-old midfielder will miss three rounds total. In an official statement, a spokesperson said:
Powell-Pepper engaged in inappropriate behaviour that is unbecoming for an AFL player by being intoxicated in a public place and by making inappropriate contact with a female. Taking into account Powell-Pepper has missed the last two Port Adelaide AFL matches in rounds four and five while the investigation was ongoing, Powell-Pepper will be suspended for a further one week.
It seems Powell-Pepper was not found guilty of sexual misconduct, with the league adding: “the AFL also note that it has made no other findings in this matter”.
PAFC added in a statement on their website: “Port Adelaide acknowledges the conclusion to the AFL Integrity Department’s investigation into an incident involving Sam Powell-Pepper at an Adelaide bar.”
The club will further address the findings at a press conference to be held tomorrow.
