Overview
- Summers changed his plea to guilty in late June 2026 to two counts of penetrative sexual abuse of a child and a grooming charge that included exposing a child to indecent material.
- Court documents say the core offence occurred on January 16, 2018 when Summers, then on the Hobart Hurricanes roster, met a 15-year-old via social media, picked her up and drove to a local school where prosecutors allege he abused her.
- Prosecutors told the court that contact between Summers and the victim continued until 2021, forming the basis of the grooming allegation.
- Summers previously pleaded guilty in the Northern Territory in 2021 to possessing and transmitting child abuse material, served jail time, and was extradited to Tasmania in 2025 to face the 2018 charges.
- Justice Helen Wood remanded Summers in custody, ruled a wholly suspended sentence was not available, and scheduled sentencing for August 2026 while the defence has urged mitigation citing social isolation and low reoffending risk.