Wallabies star Kurtley Beale is found NOT GUILTY of raping woman in a Bondi pub – on the same day his accuser is to marry

Australian rugby star Kurtley Beale has been found not guilty of sexually assaulting a woman he met in a Bondi pub.

A NSW District Court jury on Friday acquitted 35-year-old Beale of one count of sexual intercourse without consent and two counts of sexual touching.

The jury took just an hour to reach a verdict on the alleged incident, which it said took place at the Beach Road Hotel in Sydney’s east in December 2022.

Beale was seen wiping away tears and hugging his supporters after the verdict was handed down.

It also comes as Beale’s accuser was expected to marry her partner on Friday.

During the trial, Beale’s barrister Margaret Cunneen SC claimed the 29-year-old woman had consented to and was “in control” of the meeting and that she had made the allegations to gain sympathy from her fiancé.

Beale has always maintained the meeting at the Beach Rd Hotel in Bondi was consensual

“I have no hesitation in suggesting that she is a manipulative woman who engineered the circumstances of the night to turn the tables, to make herself a victim,” she said Thursday.

She later added, “This is a woman who is a very good actress. She manipulates (Mr. Beale), she puts words in his mouth. Mr. Beale is not lying, he has not lied.”

In her closing speech, Ms Cunneen focused on one of the most important aspects of the trial: a secretly recorded telephone conversation in which Mr Beale first learned of the allegations.

During the phone call, the woman told Mr Beale that she had not consented to the sexual act.

He initially said the pair had ‘hooked up’, before admitting he had ‘misread the situation’.

Ms Cunneen told the jury on Thursday that Mr Beale had read out the situation the night before the phone call that the sex act in the toilet cubicle had been ‘all consensual’.

“He honestly believed that she had given consent and communicated… when she said something different (in the phone call), Mr Beale says he misread it,” she said.

She previously said: ‘Of course there is a guilty conscience, his wife knows what is going on during the telephone conversation. If you are looking for a guilty conscience, of course you will find it.

“But if a guilty conscience relates to something done in marriage, that is not ideal and has nothing to do with a guilty mind about a serious criminal offense.”

Beale’s barrister – Margaret Cunneen SC told the court the alleged victim was the instigator (Beale is pictured, with wife Maddi)

Beale was a schoolboy prodigy who represented Australia at three World Cups

Beale’s barrister Margaret Cunneen SC (left) – told the court her client ‘will make an application for costs’

Crucially, Ms Cunneen said the call was made to the police because she had failed to prove one of the three elements of the offence, namely that he would have known the woman did not consent.

The jury was also shown handwritten notes the woman had made before the call, in which she wrote that the purpose was to “convince him that he is guilty and not innocent.”

In her speech, Ms Cunneen dismissed the accusation of groping as ‘blink and you’ll miss it’, saying an alleged second act in the toilet cubicle was ‘absurd’ because of the timing.

During her questioning, the woman vehemently denied Ms Cunneen’s claim that she was using the claims to gain sympathy from her fiancé, with whom she had had a serious argument.

Ms Cunneen added that the woman could not admit there were discrepancies between her statements to police and recordings with her family, and that the CCTV footage played out in court.

Notable in the defense case was the woman’s claim shortly after the evening that it was Mr Beale who followed her into the bathroom. The video proved otherwise.

The footage, played in court, captured the drunken night at the popular Sydney bar, including the four minutes and 30 seconds Mr Beale and the woman spent in the bathroom together.

The jury was told that both she and Mr Beale were drunk that night, but Mr Tunks told them not to think about it.

Crown prosecutor Jeff Tunks, for his part, told the jury that the woman had presented herself as a “defiant” witness who was “somewhat steadfastly consistent in her allegations.”

Beale’s sporting future is unknown; he was sacked by Rugby Australia after being charged in January last year

Mr Tunk had encouraged the jury to consider accepting parts of the woman’s evidence, without having to accept everything she said in court or to police and family.

The verdict marks the end of a grueling multi-week trial for the jury, which deliberated for about an hour.

They heard evidence from the woman, her fiancé, her family and her fiancé’s family.

It also marks the end of a year-long court battle for Mr Beale after he was withdrawn from the NSW Waratahs by Rugby Australia following his arrest in January 2023.

Beale’s wife broke down in tears after the verdicts – and the footy star’s barrister – Margaret Cunneen SC – told the court her client will ‘serve a report’.