Robert Candelori successfully applied to the Parramatta District Court on Monday 2 August to relax Manase Fainu’s stringent bail conditions after the Court was forced to vacate his trial originally listed to commence in July due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

The Crown had earlier advised that one witness Uona Faingaa would be treated as unfavourable after initially confessing to the alleged stabbing at a Mormon church dance, before backflipping.

The NRL will be asked to reconsider Manase Fainu’s suspension under its controversial no-fault stand-down policy in circumstances where Fainu is now facing another 12 months on the sidelines pending a new trial in the second half of 2022.

Paul McGirr told the Sydney Morning Herald outside court “The alleged victim doesn’t know what happened to him. There are two other defence witnesses that were not interviewed by police and I am confident that they will say it was not my client that was the perpetrator of this offence.”

“Basically they will treat one of their own witnesses as unfavourable, which is the bloke who has admitted to doing it.

“Originally he met with family members and the community and said it was him. After the incident, he admitted to doing it, to dumping the knife and now he has backflipped.

“Bearing in mind that he was allegedly owed a debt, that all made sense, he was the person who had a grievance with someone who was going to be at that location.

“He will be treated as an unfavourable witness by the Crown because it doesn’t suit their case theory. On top of the unfavourable witness, there are also issues with two other witnesses who weren’t interviewed.

“So the police haven’t interviewed all the witnesses that he admitted to doing it to, and secondly there are two other witnesses who were present at the scene who also weren’t interviewed by police, who we envisage will be coming along to say it wasn’t our client who did the actual stabbing.

“It certainly gives weight that it wasn’t my client and based on those particular factors. Serious consideration is being made to take this particular information to the NRL.”

NRL 2021: NRL to be asked to reconsider Manase Fainu ban after shock case twist (smh.com.au)