Sources close to one of the adult entertainers involved in the Sydney Swans hotel controversy say reporting an alleged sexual assault to police has carried a devastating personal toll.

The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, is reportedly struggling with severe paranoia and financial pressure and has been admitted to hospital twice.

The revelations emerged as Isaac Heeney, one of the players dubbed the ‘Pullman Five’, was named the Sydney Swans’ ‘Best and Fairest’ at the club’s end-of-season awards on Thursday.

Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, James Jordon and Riley Bice attended a party at Melbourne’s Pullman East Melbourne hotel on August 17. Three adult entertainers later told police they had been sexually assaulted.

Police subsequently opened an investigation, while the five players were stood down for the remainder of the AFL season after breaching the Swans’ code of conduct by drinking and bringing women back to their hotel.

No charges have been laid, and the Daily Mail does not suggest the players are personally under investigation. Bice was cleared by police in early September and is now being treated solely as a witness.

Although the club imposed sanctions, all five players remained eligible for its awards. The Swans also replaced the traditional ‘Best and Fairest’ title for the Bob Skilton Medal with ‘Most Valuable Player’.

Heeney’s award was understood to have further upset the three women involved in the widely publicised case. It came after reports of a growing view in AFL and legal circles that sexual assault charges could prove difficult to prosecute following a review of statements.

The women cannot be named by the media, but friends say they are distressed by the investigation’s slow progress and believe a smear campaign has been directed at them.

“One told me it’s been the worst month of her life,” an insider said.

“They are all paranoid. They don’t know who they can trust or what is happening with the investigation.

“Then this award [for Heeney]… of course they are upset. Seeing him publicly celebrated is frustrating.”

Despite laws preventing the media from identifying them, the friend said numerous personal details had appeared online, leaving all three women living as though they were “in witness protection”.

“They are worried someone may recognise them, and they can’t take private bookings for topless waitressing or stripping jobs because of that,” the friend added.

“That has had a knock-on effect because it is how they earn money, and I know one of the girls is almost broke.”

The friend also said the women don’t know who they can trust after reports emerged that police had seized secret audio files recorded without their knowledge.

The recordings are believed to have been made without the women’s knowledge or consent and allegedly capture the strippers’ account of what transpired in the hotel room, as well as discussions about what steps the women planned to take afterwards.

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‘They are under a lot of stress and one of the girls in particular is really struggling and has been admitted to hospital twice,’ they said.

‘The first time was just days after the booking. She had suffered a medical episode during her [lap dance] performance and fled the room to get some air.

‘She actually ended up being rushed to hospital for that.’

The friend also told the Daily Mail the same girl was again admitted to hospital on another occasion due to stress.

The exact nature of the women’s untested sexual assault allegations has never been confirmed by police. However, the Mail understands that one of the women claims she was slapped four times on the buttocks but was only paid for three.

The players have always maintained their innocence and the Mail does not suggest they engaged in any wrongdoing.

While the suspended players did not attend Thursday’s event, the club publicly backed their legal position, with Swans chairman Andrew Pridham saying they should be afforded the ‘presumption of innocence’ despite being stood down.

‘This decision reflected only on their breach of club standards and behaviour,’ he said.

‘At no time have we made any judgement on the allegations currently before police, as this is a separate matter.

‘And as we know, the players strenuously deny the allegations.’

As Heeney’s name was read out, many in attendance stood, clapped and cheered.

In an emotional video message played after he was named the Bob Skilton Medal winner for 2026, Heeney said he is ‘truly sorry’ for his role in the scandal that engulfed Sydney last month.

‘When I was told about this honour, it was the first time I smiled and felt positive about the future in a long time,’ he said.

‘I want to say to everyone – in particular my teammates, the Swans players, the AFLW, and the staff – from the depths of my heart, I’m truly sorry for putting you through the extreme difficulty you’ve had to endure, as it’s had a huge impact on our club.

‘Every single day I was away from the club was heartbreaking, knowing that I couldn’t make a contribution. Every single day, I think about what could have been.

‘I’m incredibly excited about what this group can do. I can’t wait to get back to training with the boys, get better, and tackle next year together.’

This week, the Mail revealed Heeney had been dumped by fiancée Steffie Waters, with a source close to the former WAG saying she had called off their engagement.

Friends claimed Waters’ decision stemmed from her own relationship boundaries and was no reflection on the allegations.

The co-pilot accused of attempting to hijack an Israel-bound flight had posted videos featuring al-Qaeda leaders and clips that appeared to depict Israeli aircraft being targeted three years earlier.

Hamam Al Hammami, a 29-year-old Omani national, allegedly attacked Captain Smit Machchhar with the aircraft’s crash axe while trying to seize control of the Flydubai jet bound for Tel Aviv on Wednesday morning.

Passengers and crew members reportedly wrestled with the co-pilot and helped restore control after the aircraft plunged 14,000 feet in just 29 seconds. A British pilot who was off duty is believed to have been among those who intervened.

Al Hammami, who studied at a British university, had worked as a trainee with Oman’s national airline in 2024. Officials said he was removed from flying duties over concerns that time spent in Syria may have exposed him to radical groups. He was subsequently transferred to an administrative role at Oman Air.

CNN reported that two posts appeared on a LinkedIn account matching Al Hammami’s identity around nine hours after the incident.

The first post reportedly contained several cockpit videos recorded aboard a Boeing 737 Max. One clip, geolocated to Dubai International Airport, appeared to zoom in on an El Al aircraft.

A cockpit display showed flight number OMA624 and the date October 11, 2023, corresponding with the period when Al Hammami worked for Oman Air. The flight number is associated with a route that typically operates between Dubai and Muscat. Other footage showed additional El Al planes and an aircraft operated by the Israeli airline Arkia.

The post concluded with images of Ayman al-Zawahiri, who succeeded Osama bin Laden as al-Qaeda’s leader, and Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, who killed nine people in a suicide bombing in 2009.

The account’s second post featured an AI-generated image of Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem—Islam’s three holiest sites—connected by a glowing trail. A poem playing in the background referred to rejecting humiliation, refusing to fear death and defending personal dignity.

The LinkedIn account has since been removed. It remains unclear who uploaded the posts or whether they had been scheduled before the attack.

The profile stated that Al Hammami had spent seven years at Oman Air before leaving in February 2025. He joined Royal Air Maroc in June 2025 and left in January 2026. The profile did not refer to any employment with Flydubai.

It was initially unclear how extensively Flydubai vetted Al Hammami before hiring him.

A Gulf diplomat confirmed that he underwent standard security checks before being employed. However, the checks appear to have concentrated on criminal convictions rather than a deeper assessment of his background for possible signs of radicalisation.

Royal Air Maroc said Al Hammami completed three months of training with the airline in 2025, but his subsequent application for a position was rejected.

The United Arab Emirates, which is leading the investigation, is seeking to determine whether Al Hammami acted alone or had links to extremist organisations.

Al Hammami was born in the UAE, while his mother is Syrian. He acquired Omani nationality through his father.

He completed a three-year distance-learning programme at Buckinghamshire New University, graduating with a degree in aviation management in 2023.

The university said that Al Hammami did not take any pilot training at the school.

According to the university’s website, its aviation management courses ‘look into the background operations, logistics, security and management of the aviation industry’.

It is understood he also studied engineering at a university in Australia. 

According to state news agency WAM, UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said ‘the co-pilot had attempted to carry out a terrorist act’ and had ‘attacked the captain in the cockpit with the emergency axe and tried to take control of the aircraft’.

On Friday, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the suspect had undergone ‘Islamist radical indoctrination’.

In a post on X, UAE senior adviser Anwar Gargash branded the attack ‘a dangerous terrorist act’. 

Al Hammami, who was transferred Thursday from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates, is understood to be ‘co-operating’.

A Flydubai spokesman in an email said the airline could not comment beyond its official statements and acknowledged ‘there are many questions at this stage’. 

In his first public comments on the incident, Flydubai Chief Executive Ghaith al Ghaith on Friday said that the flight diverted after a ‘safety incident’ inside the cockpit.

Airlines are generally required to carry crash axes in the cockpit that could be used in an emergency to break open a window or break open a panel to access a fire. 

The axes are generally stored in the cockpits where the crew can reach them, but they aren’t accessible to passengers.

Video footage at the time captured the terrifying screams and cries of passengers onboard Flight FZ1073 that plunged into an erratic descent. 

The flight, carrying 182 people from Dubai to Tel Aviv, was diverted to Tabuk in north-western Saudi Arabia for an emergency landing. 

It transmitted a general emergency signal using a squawk code – four-digit numbers used for in-flight communication – of 7700 while making a U-turn over the border between the two countries.

While flying over Saudi Arabia, it briefly issued a code of 7500, signalling unlawful interference or a hijacking.

Officials feared the incident could have become another ‘September 11’ attack, adding that passengers had prevented an ‘Israeli 9/11’ by tying up the assailant.

The person, who heard the crew’s mayday call and wishes to remain anonymous, said the pilot’s voice was trembling as he called ‘mayday’ and said a hijacking was taking place and ambulances would be needed. 

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But Saudi Arabia initially denied clearance to land and directed him to Jordan. The plane was told to wait for clearance from the Jordanian military and then turned away.

The pilot then returned to Saudi Arabia and said he had to land in Tabuk. The air traffic control operators gave no reason for the earlier refusals.

Passengers and crew, including the captain Mr Machchhar, have been hailed for their bravery in preventing what is believed to be an attempted suicide mission. One of whom is said to have been an off-duty British pilot.

Mr Machchhar was praised for saving the lives of those 174 passengers on board, which included four Americans. While cruising mid-air, the hero was able to fight off his co-pilot in the cockpit and his attempts to sabotage the plane’s systems.

Distressing footage showed Mr Machchhar lying on the ground covered in blood as passengers tended to his injuries, while another pilot is seen seemingly lying nearby unconscious. Passengers can be heard telling one of the men: ‘You saved the plane.’

Delhi’s embassy in Saudi Arabia has since confirmed Mr Machchhar is being treated in a hospital in Tabuk.

The incident was described as ‘an attempted jihadist terror attack’ by Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz, which was ‘thwarted only thanks to the heroism of several Israeli passengers’.

This includes one, named by local media as Yaniv Hayoun, who was called a ‘hero’ by Mr Netanyahu during a meeting as he arrived back in Tel Aviv.

Mr Hayoun, who was wearing a blood-soaked T-shirt, embraced the Israeli PM before describing how he broke down the cockpit door and wrestled with the co-pilot before taking over control of the plane – the skills of which he credits to his watching of TV show Air Disasters, which investigates notable aviation crises.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Mr Hayoun recounted the terrifying moment he stepped in, describing how he put the pilot in a headlock and prevented him from interfering with the controls as the jet plunged towards the ground.

‘About an hour before landing, a woman started shouting,’ he said, ‘At the front of the aircraft, a woman started screaming something about stabbing: “He’s stabbing him, he’s stabbing him”.’

Mr Hayoun said he ran towards the cockpit, which is where the woman’s screams were coming from, but as he approached, the plane nosedived.

Photos from the incident show blood-covered passengers in the aftermath of the attack, after they successfully managed to overpower the attacker and prevent him from continuing his assault.

‘It lasted several seconds. I don’t know exactly how many seconds it was, but they say we lost 14,000 or 15,000 feet in less than a minute — the aircraft lost that altitude. It was enormous.’

Speaking later, one passenger said the turbulence felt like ‘riding a rollercoaster’.

Another passenger, Zvika Manes, said people were ‘flying out of their seats’ before the plane stabilised.

When he managed to recover from the shock, Mr Hayoun said he got to the door of the cockpit, where someone was holding the handle.

‘I opened the door – I pushed the door while he was holding the handle. I pushed it open and went inside. On the floor, right beside the door, was the pilot. He was lying there. He was very seriously injured.’

‘There was no pilot in the pilot’s seat. One pilot was lying beside the door, seriously injured but conscious. His eyes were open. Between the two seats are the aircraft’s controls.’

Mr Hayoun recounted how the attacker had his knees on the plane’s controls, ‘as though trying to interfere with the instruments’.

‘He was leaning forward toward the aircraft’s controls. So I grabbed him by the throat,’ he said, ‘I pushed him out toward the exit and started shouting for people to come and help because he was resisting.’

The hero explained that at least three other Israelis rushed to his aid.

‘We subdued him with blows. We had to stun him, so he took some blows. We tied him up.

‘Once he was no longer a threat, we simply stood over him and made sure he couldn’t free himself. He may even have lost consciousness for a few minutes – I don’t know.’

After the attacker had been subdued, Mr Hayoun quickly returned to the plane’s controls, in a desperate attempt to save the aircraft from plummeting to the ground.

‘I leaned over the seat, reached forward with my hands and pulled the controls toward me because the aircraft was pointing downward. I pulled the controls back toward me. It was only for a few seconds.’

Speaking to the Mail after safely returning to Israel, the grandfather explained how he miraculously knew what to do in the terrifying moments.

‘There’s a programme called Air Crash Investigation…The images are frightening and they make my wife afraid of flying, so I watch it secretly when she isn’t watching with me.

‘I saw on it that when an aircraft is going downward, you have to bring the controls back – pull them backward – to bring the nose level. It really was only for a few seconds. It wasn’t as though I flew the plane.’

He later recounted how his daughter used to ask him how the plane documentary would ‘ever be useful’.

‘Well, this is where it became useful to me,’ he said, ‘What I had seen became useful to me in the only attempt I’ve ever had in my life to survive. It was one shot – one opportunity.’

Despite his insistence he only helped for a ‘few seconds’, Mr Hayoun’s heroic actions allowed time for one of the off-duty pilots on the plane to step in and take control.

United Airlines pilot and aviation safety expert Steve Arroyo said he was surprised that the plane was able to land safely after most of the rudder was ripped off the tail during the extreme descent.

‘That was a serious descent and strong aerodynamic forces on that rudder for that to happen. I’m just amazed the aircraft didn’t come apart,’ Mr Arroyo said.

Another aviation safety expert, Jeff Guzzetti, said that given the rate of descent, it may not have been possible for the plane to level out if it had fallen below 10,000ft.

‘It is remarkable they were able to pull out of that dive. What saved them is there was enough altitude left for them to recover,’ said Mr Guzzetti, who used to investigate crashes for the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration in the US.

Flydubai said in a statement it was suspending flights to and from Israel as it investigated Wednesday’s incident.

A woman who had ovarian tissue frozen at 18 after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer has become a mother at 44 following pioneering fertility treatment.

Kassandra Bacon was only days from her 19th birthday in 2001 when doctors diagnosed her with Hodgkin lymphoma, a rare type of blood cancer.

Although she pleaded with doctors to protect her chances of having children, she was told that urgent, high-dose chemotherapy was essential to save her life.

Still, Ms Bacon refused to abandon the possibility of becoming a mother. She successfully pushed for an experimental procedure at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge before her treatment began.

Doctors removed and froze a thin section of her ovarian tissue, preserving it in the hope that it could eventually be transplanted back into her body.

Twenty-five years later, that hope became reality when Ms Bacon gave birth to her son, David, on September 9 using the ovarian tissue preserved when she was a teenager.

The case has been described as a “global scientific milestone” because it marks the longest recorded period ovarian tissue has been stored before being transplanted and ultimately leading to a pregnancy.

The breakthrough could offer fresh hope to thousands of women whose fertility is threatened by cancer treatment.

Ms Bacon’s ovarian tissue was frozen in May 2001 by an NHS team led by embryologist Martyn Blayney, at a time when the treatment was still considered experimental and its success was far from certain.

The procedure involved preserving tiny pieces of ovarian tissue containing thousands of immature eggs.

Years later, the tissue can be grafted back onto the ovaries. The aim is for it to respond to hormones, restore the menstrual cycle and release eggs.

Reflecting on the arrival of her son, David, Ms Bacon told The Times: “I look down at him and it is a bit surreal. He is healthy, he’s thriving, he’s such a cool, calm, little man.”

“I just thank my younger self for being so determined. I was very maternal, I just wanted to be a mother.”

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Ms Bacon survived the cancer, but chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant caused permanent damage to her ovaries. When she was 32 and ready to start a family with her partner, she was told the devastating news that she was “menopausal with no viable follicles”.

Undeterred, she began a decade-long search for a doctor willing to carry out the transplant.

The aspiring mother consulted eight fertility specialists in the UK and Brussels, but each one declined to treat her.

One major obstacle was a lack of the required paperwork. Her ovarian samples had been frozen before the UK introduced formal tissue-storage regulations in 2007.

Eventually, Ms Bacon found Professor Dror Meirow at Sheba Medical Centre in Israel, who agreed to perform the transplant. Her tissue was then transported to Israel after spending two decades in storage at Bourn Hall Fertility Clinic in Cambridge.

But, in another twist in her long journey to motherhood, Ms Bacon’s journey to Israel was delayed following the October 7 attacks and the beginning of the war in Gaza.

In May 2024, it was safe enough to travel to Israel and she had an operation to transplant her younger self’s ovarian tissue back to her ovaries. 

Months later, she got her period for the first time in years which showed the procedure had worked and on Christmas Day she found out she was pregnant.

The decade-long treatment path was entirely self-funded and cost Ms Bacon £50,000.

She has started a Go Fund Me to cover the costs of the treatment.

Ms Bacon stressed that fertility restoration shouldn’t ‘depend on whether somebody can find the money’.

Dr Sara Matthews, a consultant gynaecologist in London who helped Ms Bacon, said the procedure was a ‘scientific milestone’ and she urged the NHS to provide funding to carry out ovarian tissue transplants for other women.

‘The NHS committed to doing the [ovarian tissue storage] in the first place, they should at least commit to putting it back in for them,’ she said. 

The first live birth from an ovarian transplantation was in 2004, and since then about 350 babies have been born worldwide from women who have undergone the treatment.