Kurtley Beale’s lawyer claims rape accuser had ‘obvious’ motive to lie and trial was doomed to fail
It took a jury just two hours to reach a verdict and reject the woman’s story. 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 completely contradicted by CCTV footage from the night and should never have been prosecuted, his lawyers have argued.
Beale is seeking legal fees 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 completely contradicted by CCTV footage from the night and should never have been prosecuted, his lawyers have argued.
Beale is seeking legal fees after being found not guilty in February of one count of sexual intercourse without consent and two counts of sexual touching.
The rape case against rugby star Kurtley Beale was completely contradicted by CCTV footage
Beale’s lawyer Margaret Cuneen (pictured) said the accuser should never have gone ahead with the trial and had a clear motive to lie
The woman’s story did not match CCTV footage that would have been clear to prosecuting authorities “from the outset”, Beale’s lawyer Margaret Cunneen SC told a hearing at Sydney’s Downing Center District Court on Friday.
“Just reading this letter and seeing the CCTV footage is enough to say that this case is doomed to failure,” she told the court.
“This isn’t just a word against word case.”
The circumstances in which the woman was also feuding with her fiancé at the time gave her a “clear, obvious, urgent, immediate” motivation to lie to save her relationship, Ms Cunneen said.
‘Her relationship had reached a very precarious point. According to the fiancée, it was the lowest point in the relationship,” she said.
Text messages detailing a dispute between the couple showed the only way the woman could ‘spin’ the story and get her fiancé back on side was to file a complaint against Beale, Ms Cunneen argued .
“It works because he goes from being completely disinterested in what she’s saying to being sympathetic,” she said.
Beale’s rugby career was put on hold for the duration of the trial before he was found not guilty
Beale made his return to the sport for Randwick in the Australian Club Rugby Championship
Crown prosecutor Philip Hogan told the court that the “admissions” Beale made during a recorded telephone conversation with the woman were enough to proceed with the case.
“There is an even more fundamental way in which this is not a case of word against word,” he told the court.
In the phone call, Beale admits he may have misinterpreted the situation, saying, “I was super pissed, but no excuses in that regard.”
“I thought it was on for some reason,” Beale also said during the conversation.
Mr Hogan told the court the Crown would be entitled to treat Beale’s comments as a confession.
In the defense’s case, the woman and Beale did have a sexual encounter in a stall in the men’s room, but the woman consented.
When filing her complaint, the woman initially claimed Beale 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.’
Ms Cunneen also pointed to footage in the moments immediately after the couple emerged from the bathroom, where the woman near Beale did not appear to be in any distress.
“We know there was no apparent discomfort between the complainant and Mr Beale that there was even physical kissing and cuddling,” Ms Cunneen said.
Beale has managed to return to first grade and made his Super Rugby debut for the Western Force this week
The allegations and trial may have closed the door on Beale returning to the Wallabies due to his age
Judge Graham Turnbull said that, given the current social awareness of variations in the way people respond to trauma, the plaintiff may have relied on her reaction being a “neutral factor” in retrospect.
“People react in different ways and just because someone doesn’t scream, for example, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen,” he said.
Ms Cunneen said the woman in the footage appears ‘extremely warm and affectionate’ in circumstances where she claims Beale’s last words after the rape were ‘fuck off’.
“Until now, I have never heard of a rape myth that says victims hug their attacker,” she said.
A hearing on a decision on costs is scheduled for June 14.
The former Wallabies playmaker has 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 played for Sydney club side Randwick in mid-March.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redressal Support Service 1800 211 028