Messages revealed between international cricket star Danushka Gunathilaka and woman he’s accused of sexually assaulting

An international cricketer ‘relentlessly’ pursued a Tinder date via messages on three different apps, asking the Sydney woman to fly to Brisbane to see him and telling her he knew they would ‘like each other’ because he had a ‘feeling’.

Sri Lankan cricketer Danushka Gunathilaka faced four days of trial at the Downing Center District Court this week after pleading not guilty to one charge of sexual assault without consent.

The 32-year-old batsman is accused of removing a condom while having sex with a woman in her eastern Sydney home on November 2 last year, known as stealth.

Although it was agreed that both Mr Gunathilaka and the woman had engaged in “flirty” messages since meeting on Tinder on October 29, Attorney General Gabrielle Steedman told the court it was the cricketer who “relentlessly pursued” the woman.

The messages between the pair were released by the court and span three different social media apps from when they first swiped on each other on Tinder.

The pair chat briefly on Tinder before Mr Gunathilaka asks to move the conversation to Instagram as it would be ‘easier’.

While the woman is initially reluctant, she hands him her handle and Mr. Gunathilaka sends the first message: “So what made you swipe right lol.”

The woman replies: ‘You’re a bit of a hottie and you have kind eyes.’

Mr Gunathilaka and the woman continue to chat on Instagram and the woman invites him to the establishment in Sydney’s CBD but he doesn’t go because he is ‘too tired’ after a cricket match.

The cricketer then traveled to Brisbane and the pair agreed to meet when he returned to Sydney, with the woman organizing a date around her work schedule and a wedding.

‘Would you be free on Wednesday (sic)? I’m wearing something for the wedding,” she asked.

Mr. Gunathilaka replied, “Yes, let us meet after your marriage.”

“Definitely not my wedding,” she responded with a laughing emoji.

The situation changed when Mr Gunathilaka asked the woman to meet him in Brisbane.

“You can’t be that happy,” the woman said, before asking why he wanted her to go.

The cricketer said it was to ‘spend time’ with the woman, before later asking her for some ‘hugs’ and again asking her to fly interstate.

The woman said she was “not very good at taking orders” before asking if Mr Gunathilaka was joking.

‘No… I’m serious… Today or tomorrow! Come and stay,” he said.

The woman said they had never met and that she had work before Mr Gunathilaka promised he was not a serial killer.

“I’m sure you’re a nice guy, but we won’t know if there’s chemistry until we meet,” she said, before adding that it was too expensive and she couldn’t get away from work.

Mr Gunathilaka replied: ‘I can understand it, but I’m sure we’ll like each other, I have that feeling too.’

The conversation then moved to WhatsApp, where Mr Gunathilaka again asked the woman if she was going to fly to Brisbane, but she said she couldn’t afford it.

He offered to pay for the ticket, with the woman saying it was “sweet”, but suggested Mr Gunathilaka could meet a “nice girl in Brisbane”.

‘I invite you because I like you, but that doesn’t mean I’m looking for girls here! Thank you,” he replied.

The woman replied, “I understand. I didn’t mean to offend you. I guess I’m just surprised that you actually want me to fly up, that’s all.”

They planned to meet the following Wednesday, after the woman’s pre-wedding drinks at the Opera Bar.

She warns him that it is freezing and that he should bring a jacket, to which he replies, “I’ll warm you up.”

In her closing address, Attorney General Steedman said the “taste of the messages” showed that Gunathilaka was “pursuing the complainant.”

She said Mr Gunathilaka chased the woman “quite relentlessly”.

EMBRACE ON CCTV

CCTV footage shows the pair embracing as they met at the Opera Bar and mingled with friends, before walking arm in arm to nearby Frankie’s Pizza for dinner.

They then return to Circular Quay to catch the ferry to the woman’s home, with CCTV footage showing them kissing on the quay, with the woman’s arms around Mr Gunathilaka’s neck.

During her cross-examination, the woman said these kisses were ‘forceful and aggressive’ and told the court that the cricketer ‘forcefully spanked her bottom’ while she was on the ferry.

But the cricketer’s lawyer, Murugan Thangaraj SC, told the court that the alleged victim had provided a story that had been “altered” and “shaped to fit the allegation”.

CRICKETERS TEARS

The woman reported the matter to the police on November 5 and Mr Gunathilaka was arrested in the early hours of November 6 at the Hyatt Regency, where the Sri Lankan cricket team was staying for the T20 World Cup at the time.

He was then taken to Day Street police station where he answered questions for more than two hours during a recorded interview.

The court released the footage, which shows the cricketer becoming emotional while talking about a spiritual conversation he had with the alleged victim.

Mr Gunathilaka told police the pair had sex before they started talking, with the woman saying she had the power to ‘see the future’.

“She has another power, I don’t know what you call it… I was so interested in those things because I’m a Buddhist…” he said in the interview before starting to cry.

“We were talking about religious things… that she can see in a past life and we talked about things like that.”

Mr Gunathilaka told the police officers that he asked the woman to tell him about his past life and she told him that they were neighbors in Thailand.

The cricketer told police he became scared and “got the feeling” the woman was “a bit strange”, prompting him to tell the woman he wanted to go home. She ordered a taxi for him.

The last message Mr Gunathilaka sent to the woman was ‘Thank you’ after she provided him with the taxi details.

“I didn’t text her and she didn’t text me either,” Gunathilaka told police.

“That’s it, then I’m here.”

Mr Gunathilaka told police that the sex between the couple was consensual, and that he did not have condoms with him as he did not think there was any chance of this happening.

However, Detective Sergeant Laura Beecroft of the Sex Crimes Squad told the court that Mr Gunathilaka’s Burberry bag which he was carrying that night was searched and two condoms in wrappers were found.

The cricketer was asked if he had ever put his penis ‘in her without a condom’.

“No, no, definitely not,” Mr Gunathilaka replied.

However, Mr Gunathilaka admitted that he had told police that he preferred to have sex without a condom, but denied that he did not want to use one during their encounter.

He said: ‘I just said ‘I don’t normally like sex with condoms’, I didn’t say ‘I don’t want to have sex without a condom’.”

THE PROBLEM DURING THE PROCESS

The 32-year-old batsman is accused of removing a condom without the 29-year-old woman’s knowledge, known as stealth.

He has pleaded not guilty to sexual intercourse without consent and faced a four-day trial standing alone before Judge Sarah Huggett.

The court was told that the woman had consented to protected sex, with the main issue at trial being Mr Gunathilaka’s state of mind as to whether or not he had removed the condom without the woman’s knowledge.

Mr Thangaraj told the court during his closing address that the alleged victim had given a story that had been ‘altered’ and ‘shaped to fit the allegation’.

He alleged that the woman had given false and self-serving evidence during her evidence and in her two statements to police.

“There is an ongoing story of doing what he wanted without respecting her… Your Honor cannot accept the complainant’s evidence,” the lawyer said.

Judge Sarah Huggett will make her ruling on Thursday.