The brother of late rugby legend Jonah Lomu has denied claims by a Tongan woman, who is facing life in jail, that Lomu was her uncle.
Selaima Fakaosilea, 30, and a co-accused, Stevie Norua Cullen, 36, have been on trial in the High Court at Whangārei for the past seven weeks charged with importing methamphetamine and participating in an organised criminal group.
According to Stuff, Fakaosilea was a first cousin of Lomu, although she referred to him as “uncle.”
It said the mother-of-one “comes from a proud sporting family and was a relative of late rugby star Lomu.”
However, Jonah’s young brother Sione Lomu told Kakalu ‘O Tonga newspaper “that was a lie.”
He said they had no family connections at all and he did not know where Selaima and her family get their information from.
“She is not my cousin and I do not know her,” Sione told the paper, which is printed in Tongan.
Sione also denied to Kakalu that Jonah and Selaima’s mother, Sela Tutu’ila, were first cousins.
When Selaima first appeared in court the New Zealand media appeared unaware of her controversial claim about blood link to the football legend.
It was only in the reports of the last day of the hearing that Selaima and Jonah claimed connection made headlines, apparently after Stuff interviewed Selaima and her brother Lolo Faka’osilea.
Lolo referred to Lomu as ‘uncle’, telling Stuff he was someone he idolised from a young age.
However, he said he and his siblings did not have a lot to do with their famous uncle, with their parents distancing themselves from the hype of Lomu’s fame.
“For myself, he played a big role because of the influence he had on the game [of rugby] but it was never pushed on us by my family,” he said.
Lolo said the family moved to Australia while the children were still young.
He reportedly said Selaima went to school in Brisbane and was “very smart.”
She was also a talented sportswoman, playing rugby and successfully playing netball to representative level.
But, as the oldest of six children, Selaima had to put aside a potential netball career – and her back-up plan of being a flight attendant – to look after her four youngest siblings, Lolo told Stuff.
“Her main plan was to become a netballer, but she had to give that up when my parents split up [in her last year of high school].”
The drug offence carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Selaima’s older brother Ulakai Fakaosilea and five others have already pleaded guilty to their roles in the case.
On June 12, 2016, police in the Far North seized 449kg of methamphetamine from a campervan, driven by a 19-year-old known as Witness X, who became the Crown’s key witness. A further 52kg of meth was found by police the following day, buried in sand dunes on Ninety Mile Beach. The 501kg haul had an estimated street value of almost half a billion dollars.
Selaima’s defence was that she was not in Northland when the drugs came ashore and had no knowledge of the drugs or their importation.
She and her co-accused were remanded in custody for sentencing at the High Court in Whangārei. They were expected to be sentenced last week, but it has been postponed until next month.
The main points
- The brother of late rugby legend Jonah Lomu has denied claims by a Tongan woman, who is facing life in jail, that Lomu was her uncle.
- Selaima Fakaosilea, 30, and a co-accused have been on trial in the High Court at Whangārei for the past seven weeks charged with importing methamphetamine and participating in an rganised criminal group.
