Bellator women’s flyweight champion [autotag]Ilima Lei-Macfarlane[/autotag] is speaking out about being the victim of alleged sexual abuse – and she’s taking action.
Macfarlane, 30, along with her older sister, Mahina Macfarlane Souza, and an unnamed former Punahou School student filed a lawsuit Thursday in Honolulu Circuit Court, listing former basketball coach Dwayne Yuen and the school as defendants. According to Hawaii News Now, citing a copy of the lawsuit, Macfarlane and Co. accuse Yuen of sexually abusing them while they attended the school.
“I had an inappropriate relationship with an adult who was in an authoritative position and a position of power, as a 12-year-old, and that has 100 percent affected what I think is a healthy relationship,” Macfarlane said.
In the lawsuit, Yuen is alleged to have forced the girls to touch his genitals, offered money for sex acts and sent explicit photos of himself. The sisters also say they reported Yuen to school administrators more than 15 years ago, but the school did nothing about it at the time.
“There was no follow at all, whatsoever, which was especially heartbreaking, because I love Punahou,” Macfarlane said. “I truly believe and know that they all knew what was going on, and it was just like a culture there.”
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Macfarlane, who attended Punahou since kindergarten and graduated from the high school in 2009, said her experience with Yuen is why she gave up basketball and pursued wrestling instead.
“I ended up losing my love for basketball, which was crazy,” Macfarlane said. “That’s what I wanted to do as a career. I wanted to play professional basketball in the WNBA.”
Macfarlane, who is undefeated at 11-0 in MMA, won Bellator’s inaugural women’s flyweight title in November 2017 and has four title defenses since then. In her most recent fight last December at Bellator 236 in her hometown of Honolulu, Macfarlane won a unanimous decision over Kate Jackson.
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