Former AFL player Nick Stevens has told a court he thought the woman on the receiving end of his lurid text messages was his partner using a fake name to try to catch him cheating.

The former Carlton player, who lived and played football in Sunraysia, and also ran a business installing pools before he left the region, has pleaded not guilty to committing perjury in December 2014 when, having sworn to tell the truth, he told a magistrate he’d never met a woman named Samantha Nash.

The 39-year-old was fighting domestic violence charges relating to a former partner, for which he was later convicted and served a sentence.

Stevens testified that “(he) never met a Samantha Nash”.

“Still to this day I don’t think a Samantha Nash is actually a Samantha Nash,” he said at the time. 

Ms Nash, however, is a real person who Stevens exchanged more than 600 text messages with over 12 days in November 2012. 

He also spoke to her on the phone a number of times and sent her sexually explicit photos and a video of himself masturbating.

His former partner received a Facebook message from Ms Nash in December 2012 telling her that Stevens had invited her to his house and pressured her into seeing him.

At his County Court perjury trial on Monday, Stevens’ barrister, Jason Gullaci asked him what he meant when he told the magistrate he “never met a Samantha Nash”. 

“That is that I never met her in person and I never spoke to her in person,” Stevens replied. 

At the time of his 2014 testimony, Stevens thought that his ex and her friends “might have set up a Facebook alias ... to catch me out cheating”. 

“At that date, at that time do you believe that was correct?” Mr Gullaci asked.

“Yes,” Stevens said yesterday. 

“It all just seemed convenient that she (his ex-partner) knew all this knowledge straight away.” 

He admitted cheating on his partner on at least one occasion but couldn’t remember if he had sent explicit texts to any other women. 

Ms Nash earlier told the jury she met Stevens at a football event in late 2012 and spoke to him for five to seven minutes. 

Stevens denied meeting her.

The trial continues. 

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