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Stuart MacGill: Ex-Australia cricketer says alleged kidnapping and assault has 'hurt his family'



stuart-macgill-ex-australia-cricketer-says-alleged-kidnapping-and-assault-has-hurt-his-family
Stuart MacGill, pictured left while working with the England team in 2018, has spoken publicly for the fist time about the alleged abduction

London, June 22: Former Australia cricketer Stuart MacGill has said his alleged kidnapping and assault has taken a major toll on his family.

Four people, including the brother of MacGill's partner Maria O'Meagher, have been charged over the incident, which took place on 14 April.

Police say they are searching for three other men believed to be involved.

"It's hurt my family, and I know that a lot of people don't really know what's going on," MacGill, 50, said. Referring to himself and his partner, he added: "But I can put both of us in the same boat too. We don't know what's going on."

MacGill spoke publicly about his alleged ordeal for the first time on the day that police released security camera footage of two men they want to question in relation to the incident.

Police said MacGill had introduced his partner's brother to a reputed drug dealer, known to authorities as "Sonny", before his alleged abduction.

MacGill, who worked as a manager at a Sydney restaurant owned by his partner, said they introduced people "all the time" through work. MacGill waited five days to report the incident but police said he was "purely" a victim.

The former spin bowler has since told Channel Nine he "wasn't thinking particularly clearly in those first couple of days".

"I know that I have done nothing wrong, Maria has done nothing wrong," the former cricketer told Australian broadcaster Channel Nine.

"If people choose to think something contrary to what's been presented by both myself and the police, then that's up to them."

MacGill, a Test spinner for Australia between 1998 and 2008, sustained minor injuries in the alleged incident but did not require medical care, police said following arrests made in May.

 

What do police say happened?

Police allege MacGill had been approached and confronted in the Sydney suburb of Cremorne one evening by a 46-year-old man he knew.

Two other men then appeared and the group forced the ex-cricketer into a car.

He was driven to a remote site in Bringelly, on the city's outskirts, where he was allegedly assaulted and threatened at gunpoint by the "criminal gang", police said.

After about an hour, he was driven to the southwest suburb of Belmore and released.

Authorities said no money was handed over or obtained in the course of the attack, but the kidnapping attempt had been financially motivated.