quotes from Payne Hass' Lawyer Campbell McCallum
“Payne was enjoying a night out with his wife having dinner and a few drinks,” Mr MacCallum told The Courier-Mail.
“What a lot of the public don’t know is that Payne’s older brother (Chase, 21) passed away last year and Payne has been struggling with a huge amount of grief over this.
“The passing of his brother added to the pressure of being thrown into the limelight with his rapid rise to rugby league stardom was bubbling to the surface.
“He has a big family support system but his wife describes him as shy and the type of person who “bottles up” his emotions.
“His partner describes Payne as a gentle giant at all times at home and the reports of a domestic situation included in the situation are completely false.”
Mr MacCallum said Haas and Ms Mohenoa were sitting and talking ‘and Payne was upset’. “His partner was consoling him and trying to settle him down as all of his emotions spilt over,” he said.
“Police were in the area and attending to a wild incident (brawl) about 20m away which had nothing to do with Payne.
“The police approached him out of the blue and started firing questions at him. Payne was in a heightened state of emotion, confused and being confronted with many police officers. “What transpired after that will be the subject of further enquiries but he is devastated, as is his partner, that inaccurate reports of a domestic situation was occurring.”