AFL: Dustin Martin rumoured to be dating the wife of disgraced former footy player Brett
AFL superstar Dustin Martin is reported to be dating the wife of disgraced footy player Brett Finch after the pair split following his child sex offence conviction
Dustin Martin is reportedly off the dating market with the AFL superstar and has been linked by media with the wife of disgraced former NRL player Brett Finch.
The 31-year-old has previously been linked with a number of models, including Jessica Gomes, Chontelle Berryman and Elissa Burns, and now the Herald Sun claims he is seeing Elli Johnston.
Johnston has recently split with Finch, her husband of five years, after he was convicted of sharing child abuse material online.
However, sources close to the family have been quick to shoot down the rumour, and say Finch and his wife are still together, despite the speculation in the Herald Sun.
Johnston married 41-year-old Finch in 2018 and the pair share a three-year-old daughter. Johnston, the daughter of Australian Football Hall of Famer and Carlton AFL great Wayne Johnston, met Finch in 2013.
In December – a month after Finch narrowly avoided a jail term for sending ‘depraved’ voice messages about sex with young boys on a gay chat service in as attempt to score drugs as he had a crippling cocaine addiction – Johnston said that their family needed time to heal.
The wife of disgraced former footy star Brett Finch is rumoured to be dating an AFL star
Dustin Martin, 31, has been linked with a lengthy list of models over the years
Martin did not confirm or deny the rumour when asked by the Herald Sun.
Finch, who played 270 NRL games in a 14-year career, is understood to now live off Centrelink payments after being knocked back on an estimated 300 job applications.
It is understood he rarely leaves his southern Sydney home.
The former halfback was arrested in December 2021 and charged with using a carriage service to publish or promote child abuse after officers intercepted his conversations in an web chat room called FastMeet.
Finch was snared in a wider investigation conducted under the banner of Strike Force Hank by officers from the NSW Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad.
Judge Phillip Mahony sentenced Finch to a $1,000 two-year good behaviour bond in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on November 23.
Finch had been under the influence of drugs when he left a series of ‘twisted’ messages on a gay chat line describing a desire to perform sex acts on boys as young as 12.
The Herald Sun claims he is seeing Elli Johnston after she reportedly split from Brett Finch following his conviction over vile child sex offences
In court Finch admitted feeling disgust at himself for making the calls and said his only intention had been to obtain cocaine as his drug problem ‘spiralled out of control’.
He believed the messages would connect him to people who could supply him cocaine.
Judge Mahony described Finch’s actions as ‘highly depraved’ and ‘absurd’ but accepted it had more to do with his chronic cocaine addiction than any genuine sexual interest in children.
He said Finch had no criminal record, helped with junior football coaching and charity work and had low prospects of reoffending.
‘I accept that he is genuinely remorseful for his offending conduct,’ Judge Mahony said, noting the ex footballer acted alone while on drug-fuelled binges.