WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
A woman who claims she was attacked by Kurtley Beale in a toilet cubicle described the encounter with the Wallabies star in text messages hours later as “so rapey”, a court has been told.
Beale, 35, faces a jury trial at Sydney’s Downing Center Court after pleading not guilty to sexual intercourse without consent and two charges of sexual touching.
Police allege Mr Beale groped a woman’s buttocks at the Beach Road bar in Bondi on December 17, 2022, before forcing her to perform oral sex in a stall in the men’s toilet.
Text messages presented during the woman’s testimony on Monday showed she described the encounter as “so rapey” after confiding in her sister about the allegations.
In later messages to her fiancé, the woman said Mr Beale followed her into the bathroom and “technically assaulted” her, but said she was afraid to tell her partner.
The 28-year-old woman, who took the stand on Monday, told the jury that Mr Beale had been ‘desperate’ and ‘forceful’ before barging into her in the bathroom stall.
‘(Mr. Beale) says, ‘I really want to fuck you.’ Those were the words he used. I said, ‘I know… (and) we don’t. You are married. I’m engaged. “I don’t want to,” she said.
‘He says, ‘Come on. Let’s find a corner here somewhere’. I said, ‘What are you talking about, don’t be silly’… I remember him saying the same thing over and over again.”
Asked about Mr Beale’s tone, the woman said: ‘It was desperate, it was powerful, it was… ‘I really want to fuck you’. For her part, she said she was trying to be “friendly.”
After going to the bathroom, the woman said Mr. Beale barged in on her while she was sitting in the stall before turning and locking the stall door.
The woman told the jury she looked to see Mr Beale grab his penis and shake it in an “it’s here motion” before demanding she perform oral sex.
In response, the woman told the jury she said ‘we can’t do that’, citing the couple’s respective relationships, and Mr Beale became ‘increasingly frustrated’.
She further alleged that Mr Beale forced her to perform oral sex before she pulled out, repeatedly telling the rugby star: ‘I don’t want to’.
‘I tried to stay calm. I said, ‘I don’t want to.’ I think I even said sorry,” the woman said.
“He said, ‘Come on’… I stood up and said no a little louder. He said, ‘Keep your voice down.’
The woman told the jury that Mr Beale spun her around ‘quite quickly’ and pushed her forward before she managed to get herself up and push past him.
“He still has his penis out and asks again, ‘Do you want to fuck?’ she said. ‘He says again, ‘Can we please fuck?’ He looks me up and down and says, ‘Oh, fuck off then.’
The next day, a series of text messages from the woman to her sister and fiancé were read out in court.
“He follows me TO THE BATHROOM,” she texted her sister, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
“I’m just like brother. I’m engaged, no, and you’re married, like WTF.”
Her sister responded, “woah woah woah, rapey vibes,” to which the woman said, “It was so f—ed, so rapey.”
The woman’s text messages to her sister shortly after the incident, describing Beale’s actions as “so rapey,” were entered into evidence in court on Monday.
Mr Beale is said to have invaded a toilet cubicle at the bar (pictured) before groping her and forcing her to perform oral sex
The court heard she told her fiancé that ‘something very strange just happened… Kurtley followed me into the bathroom and tried to kiss me’.
“That’s really weird,” her fiancé replied.
She said she didn’t want to tell him the full story at the time because she was “worried about how he would react” and “didn’t want to cause a scene.”
The woman was seen hugging Beale as they left the pub shortly afterwards.
The woman’s evidence ended there before the short break. She previously told the jury she “wanted to be nothing but friends” with Mr Beale.
In her earlier testimony, the woman told the jury she was talking to Mr Beale in the main bar when she felt ‘something… a hand’ on her buttocks.
“I was standing there trying to join the conversation when I noticed someone had grabbed my butt,” the woman, who cannot be named, told the court.
When asked what Crown Prosecutor Jeff Tunks felt next, the woman said, “I’m aware that I’m shocked and surprised, and I turn around and realize it’s Mr. Beale.”
The woman burst into tears while giving evidence and said the hand was on the outside of her playsuit dress before moving ‘down’ to her bare skin.
She further claimed that the alleged groping lasted ‘maybe a second and a half’, and after she told Mr Beale to stop, he ‘pulled his hand away’.
The woman’s testimony on Monday marks the first time she has appeared on the stand during the jury trial and focused on the drunken evening in the busy Bondi bar.
The woman told the court she had been in the games room with her fiancé when Mr Beale walked in as the pair discussed the former NSW Waratah’s wedding.
She told the court she showed Beale screenshots from his own wedding’s Instagram, commenting on the clothes Beale’s groomsmen were wearing.
During the conversation, the woman told the court Mr Beale told her fiancé: ‘Don’t do it man, it’s a trap’ before the group returned separately to the main bar.
In her opening statement, Mr Beale’s barrister, Margaret Cunneen SC, told the jury the toilet act was ‘entirely consensual’ and there was no criminal touching.
The jury was previously shown CCTV footage from the bar on the night of the alleged assault, including the alleged victim following Mr Beale into the bathroom.
The video captured the approximately 4½ minutes the pair spent in the men’s room, during which police allege Mr. Beale forced the woman to perform oral sex.