A jury took just two hours to reach its verdict, rejecting the woman’s account that Beale forced her to perform oral sex in a toilet cubicle at Bondi’s Beach Road Hotel in December 2022.
A rape case against rugby star Kurtley Beale was totally contradicted by CCTV footage from the night and should never have been investigated, his lawyers have argued.
Beale is facing legal costs after being found not guilty in February of one count of sexual intercourse without consent and two counts of sexual touching.
A rape case against rugby star Kurtley Beale was totally contradicted by CCTV footage from the night and should never have been investigated, his lawyers have argued.
Beale is pursuing legal costs after being found not guilty in February of one count of sexual intercourse without consent and two counts of sexual touching.
CCTV footage completely contradicts rape case against rugby star Kurtley Beale
Beale’s lawyer Margaret Cuneen (pictured) said the accuser should never have pursued the trial and had obvious motives for lying.
The woman’s story did not match CCTV footage which would have been clear to judicial authorities “from the beginning”, Beale’s lawyer Margaret Cunneen SC told a hearing at the Downing Center District Court in Sydney on Friday.
“Just reading this writing and seeing the security cameras is enough to say that this case is doomed to failure,” he told the court.
“This is not just a case of word against word.”
The circumstances of the woman who was also arguing with her fiancé at the time gave her “clear, obvious, compelling and immediate” motivation to lie and save their relationship, Ms Cunneen claimed.
‘Their relationship had reached a very unfortunate point. According to the fiancé, it was the lowest point of the relationship,” she said.
Text messages detailing a dispute between the couple showed that the only way for the woman to “turn around” the story and get her fiancé back was to file the complaint against Beale, Ms Cunneen argued.
“It works, because he goes from being completely uninterested in what she says to becoming understanding,” she said.
Beale’s rugby career was put on hold during the trial before he was found not guilty.
Beale returned to the sport with Randwick in the Australian Club Rugby Championship.
Crown prosecutor Philip Hogan told the court that “admissions” made by Beale during a recorded phone call with the woman were enough to justify continuing the case.
“There is another, even more fundamental way that this is not a case of word against word,” he told the court.
In the call, Beale admits to having misinterpreted the situation, saying, “I was very angry, but there are no excuses there.”
“I thought it was on for some reason,” Beale also says during the call.
Hogan told the court the Crown would be entitled to treat Beale’s comments as an admission.
In the defense case, the woman and Beale had a sexual encounter in a men’s bathroom stall, but the woman gave consent.
When making her complaint, the woman initially claimed that Beale had followed her into the bathroom, when CCTV footage showed Beale entering first followed by the woman.
“Several people were told or understood from what she said that Mr Beale had followed her into the bathroom,” Ms Cunneen said.
‘That was not the case.’
Cunneen also pointed to footage of the moments immediately after the couple left the bathroom, in which the woman does not appear to be distressed near Beale.
“We know that there was no apparent discomfort between the complainant and Mr Beale, and there was even physical kissing and hugging,” Ms Cunneen said.
Beale has been able to return to first grade football, making his Super Rugby debut with the Western Force this week.
The allegations and trial may have closed the door on Beale returning to the Wallabies again due to his age.
Judge Graham Turnbull said that, given current social awareness about variations in the way people react to trauma, the prosecution could have been confident that his subsequent reaction was a “neutral factor”.
“People respond in different ways and just because someone doesn’t scream, for example, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen,” he said.
Cunneen said in the footage that the woman appears “extremely warm and affectionate” in circumstances where she said Beale’s last words after raping her were “fuck off.”
“So far I haven’t heard of a rape myth that says victims can later be seen hugging their attacker,” she said.
A hearing has been set for June 14 to decide on costs.
The former Wallabies playmaker signed a short-term deal with the Western Force until the end of the Super Rugby Pacific season after his court case sidelined him for 14 months until he joined Randwick in mid-March. of the Sydney club.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Support Service for Reparation and Sexual Abuse 1800 211 028