Wallabies star Kurtley Beale has been discovered not responsible of allegations he sexually assaulted a lady within the lavatory of a Bondi bar after a gruelling two-week trial.
Mr Beale, 35, confronted a jury trial at Sydney’s Downing Centre Court after pleading not responsible to sexual activity with out consent and two counts of sexual touching.
The jury rejected claims that Mr Beale groped the girl’s backside on the Beach Road bar on December 17, 2022, earlier than forcing her into oral intercourse within the males’s lavatory.
Hand-in-hand with spouse Maddi, the 35-year-old informed reporters exterior of courtroom he was glad the “truth has come out”, greater than a yr after he first charged.
“I have always maintained my innocence. My family and I have suffered a terrible year,” he stated.
His lawyer informed the media “justice had been served”.
Mr Beale stayed nonetheless whereas seated within the dock because the jury learn out their verdicts for the primary two expenses. Upon the third and closing matter, he dropped his head.
Barrister Margaret Cunneen SC claimed the 29-year-old lady had consented to and been “in control” of the encounter and had made the allegations to achieve sympathy.
“I don’t shrink from suggesting she is a manipulative woman who curated circumstances of the night to turn the tables, to turn herself into a victim,” she stated on Thursday.
She later added: “This is a woman who is a very good actress. She is manipulating (Mr Beale), she is putting words in his mouth. Mr Beale doesn’t lie, he didn’t lie.”
In her closing handle, Ms Cunneen targeted on one of many key features of the trial: a secretly recorded telephone name throughout which Mr Beale first discovered of the accusations.
In the decision, the girl informed Mr Beale she had not consented to the sexual act. At first, he stated the pair “hooked up”, earlier than admitting he had “f*****g misjudged the situation”.
Ms Cunneen informed the jury on Thursday Mr Beale ‘s reading of the situation on the night – before the call – was that the sexual act in the bathroom stall was “all consensual”.
“He genuinely believed she had given and communicated consent … When she spoke something different (in the call), Mr Beale says he must have misread it,” she said.
Earlier, she said: “Of course there’s a responsible conscience, his spouse is aware of what’s occurring within the phone name. If you might be in search of a responsible conscience, after all you’ll discover it.
“But, if a responsible conscience is about one thing completed in marriage, that’s not best and is nothing to do with a responsible thoughts a few critical legal offence”.
Critically, Ms Cunneen stated the decision went to police not having proved one in every of three components of the offence, being that he would have identified the girl didn’t consent.
The jury have been additionally proven handwritten notes, which have been made by the girl earlier than the decision, wherein she wrote that its goal was to “convince him he is guilty and not innocent”.
In her handle, Ms Cunneen dismissed the groping cost as being “blink and you miss it”, and stated an alleged second act within the lavatory stall was “absurd” resulting from timing.
During her proof, the girl vehemently denied Ms Cunneen’s assertion she used the claims to achieve sympathy from her fiance, with whom she’d had a critical argument.
Ms Cunneen went on so as to add the girl was unable to concede disparities between her statements to police and admissions to her household, and the CCTV footage performed courtroom.
Notable within the defence case was the declare by the girl quickly after the evening that it was Mr Beale that adopted her into the lavatory. The video proved in any other case.
The footage, performed in courtroom, captured the boozy evening on the widespread Sydney bar, together with the 4 minutes and 30 seconds Mr Beale and the girl spent collectively within the lavatory.
The jury have been informed each her and Mr Beale have been intoxicated on the evening, however have been informed by Mr Tunks they weren’t allowed to contemplate it.
For his half, Crown prosecutor Jeff Tunks informed the jury the girl had introduced as a “defiant” witness who was “somewhat staunchly consistent in her assertions”.
Mr Tunk had inspired the jury to contemplate accepting elements of the girl’s proof, with out having to simply accept the whole lot she stated in courtroom or to police and household.
The judgment marks the top of a gruelling multi-week trial for the jury, who deliberated for about one hour. They heard proof from the girl, her fiance, her household and her fiancés household.
Importantly, it marks the top of one-year courtroom saga for Mr Beale after he was stood down from the NSW Waratahs by Rugby Australia after his arrest in January 2023.
Source: www.news.com.au
