Kurtley Beale trial: ex-Wallaby’s lawyer questions alleged sexual assault victim’s account of night at Bondi pub
A woman accusing the rugby star Kurtley Beale of rape has denied his lawyer’s assertions that she invited him into a men’s bathroom cubicle with her on the night of the alleged assault.
Beale, 35, is standing trial in the NSW district court charged with one count of sexual intercourse without consent and two counts of sexual touching following an incident at Bondi’s Beach Road Hotel in December 2022.
The former Wallabies playmaker has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.
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The woman, who alleges thatBeale touched her bottom and forced her to perform oral sex in a toilet cubicle, was cross-examined by Beale’s barrister, Margaret Cunneen SC, during a third day of evidence on Wednesday.
In her third day of evidence, the woman, who cannot be legally identified, tearfully denied the sex act was consensual and denied inviting Beale into the cubicle of the men’s bathroom in part to gain the attention of her fiance.
The court viewed CCTV footage that showed the woman returning to her fiance elsewhere in the venue and kissing him immediately after the alleged assault.
In the footage, the woman is followed a short time later by Beale who joins the couple in their conversation. The woman briefly touches Beale on the arm and shoulder and embraces him when the couple go to leave.
“If that man Mr Beale had actually sexually assaulted you and you were trying not to make a scene you would just say bye and leave,” Cunneen said.
“The reason you hugged him once or twice was because nothing bad happened between you and Mr Beale.” “I disagree,” the woman replied. Cunneen probed the woman’s relationship with her fiance at the time, describing it as being in a “very precarious position” following an argument between the pair earlier in the day.
Text messages were read to the court detailing the dispute, in which the woman says to her fiance, among other things, “You’re being mean”.
“You thought your fiance was being unfair with you,” Cunneen said.
“You thought to yourself I’ll show him, didn’t you?”
The woman firmly denied the assertions, maintaining Beale had followed her into the cubicle and alleging that he forcibly put his penis into her mouth.
The woman previously told the court Beale followed her into the cubicle, but she did not remember who followed who into the men’s bathroom area.
She said she would regularly use men’s bathrooms on nights out to avoid long queues at the women’s toilets.
“I just go to the one with the shortest queue,” the woman said.
“I never used to pay attention to the assigned gender of a bathroom.
“I do now.”
Cunneen suggested the woman had been “friendly and physically demonstrative” with a number of men in the bar on the night of the alleged incident.
“You were hugging and kissing and rubbing every man that you met,” she said.
“I disagree,” the woman replied. Cunneen suggested the woman had been acting “very friendly” with a number of male friends she talked to on the night.
“I had a lot of friends there that night, but Mr Beale’s not a friend,” the woman replied.
“You told Mr Beale you wanted to be friends,” Cunneen said.
“Yes, because I wanted to reject his sexual advances,” the woman replied.
The trial continues.
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