Beale accuser’s fiance breaks down recalling rape claim
Duncan Murray |
The fiance of a woman accusing Kurtley Beale of rape has broken down in court as he recounted her emotional disclosure of the rugby star’s alleged assault in a toilet cubicle.
Beale, 35, is standing trial in the NSW District Court on one count of sexual intercourse without consent and two of sexual touching following an incident at Bondi’s Beach Road Hotel in December 2022.
The former Wallabies champion has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The woman, who cannot be legally identified, says Beale touched her backside and forced her to perform oral sex in the toilet cubicle.
While giving evidence on Friday, the fiance said he spoke to the woman on the phone the day after the alleged assault as she was travelling to Queensland.
“I could hear in her voice she was shaking and crying at the airport,” he said.
The man broke down in the witness box as he recounted the woman telling him Beale followed her into the bathroom, pulled out his penis and tried to force it into her mouth.
The man remembered his fiancee telling him: “I was pushing him away saying ‘no, no’.”
The woman said Beale told her to be quiet otherwise people would hear her, according to the fiance.
“And when she kept fighting him … and didn’t want to do it he told her to ‘f*** off’,” the man told the court.
“She also said during the night Kurtley was grabbing her on the arse a few times and she was pushing his hand away.”
In an earlier statement to police, the fiance said he told the woman: “I’m sorry for not being in a state to protect you.”
“I just told her that I would support her and that I loved her and that we could get through anything together,” he said.
Beale’s lawyer, Margaret Cunneen SC, has probed issues between the couple at the time of the alleged assault, when the fiance agreed the relationship was at its lowest point for a number of personal reasons.
Ms Cunneen earlier in the trial suggested the woman had concocted the rape allegation to gain sympathy from her fiance and save her impending marriage.
“You have made this up for your own purposes to save the proposed marriage that you had been anticipating so excitedly,” she said, further suggesting the woman invited Beale to the bathroom and willingly engaged in oral sex with him.
But the woman denied her contact with Beale was consensual and that she had been flirtatious with him before the alleged assault.
Both of the couple have insisted the dispute between them at the time was normal and their relationship was not at risk of ending.
“Relationships go through phases of ups and downs … it’s just normal,” the fiance told the court.
Returning to the witness box on Friday to give her version of the phone call, the woman said she only remembered telling her fiance she had either been raped or sexually assaulted and did not recall telling him any specifics.
The woman said she told her fiance: “It happened in the bathroom. I told him ‘no’, I promise you.”
The trial continues on Monday.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
AAP