Why a scrap of paper thrown in the bin by a police officer has taken centre stage at cricket star Danushka Gunathilaka’s sexual assault trial

A police officer has been questioned in court after revealing she wrote an allegation of sexual assault by a Sri Lankan cricketer on pieces of paper which she then threw in the trash.

International cricket star Danushka Gunathilaka faces a judge-alone trial at Downing Center District Court after pleading not guilty to a charge of sexual assault without consent.

The charge relates to an incident in November last year in which Mr Gunathilaka allegedly removed a condom while having sex – known as stealth – with a woman at her home in eastern Kenya. Sydney.

The two first met at the Opera Bar, near the Sydney Opera House, where CCTV footage shows them kissing as they meet, before having drinks together in the city and to return to the woman’s home by ferry.

Crown prosecutor Gabrielle Steedman told court Wednesday that the woman decided to go to police the following Saturday, Nov. 5, after discussing the case with friends.

The woman first reported the matter to Constable Katrina Lackerdis of Rose Bay Police Station. She told the court she did not have her police notebook with her so had written notes on scraps of paper.

The court heard that Gunathilaka’s alleged victim first spoke to a police officer who wrote her allegations on slips of paper because she did not have her notebook with her.

“I remember the (alleged) victim telling me that shortly afterwards the accused aggressively kissed, pushed, slapped and bit her,” she told the court.

Officer Lackerdis told the court she then sent photos of her notes to another officer who would investigate the matter.

The officer was questioned by Mr Gunathilaka’s lawyer, Murugan Thangaraj SC, who asked whether she agreed it was “important” for the conversation to be recorded.

“You recorded those notes on pieces of paper, didn’t you… you threw them away, didn’t you?” » said Mr. Thangaraj.

Officer Lackerdis told the court: “I shouldn’t have, but I did. »

She told the court she probably threw the notes away at the end of her shift.

Mr Thangaraj continued to pressure the officer: “You were responsible for carrying out duties at the station… which includes answering the telephone… which includes receiving complaints from the public, including serious complaints.

“Police procedure requires that you take appropriate notes. »

Officer Lackerdis said she used what she had in front of her because her “priority” was to take accurate and contemporaneous notes.

Mr Thangaraj asked whether the police officer had told the alleged victim that she had been sexually assaulted.

The charge against the cricket star (pictured second from left, outside the field) relates to an incident with a woman in Sydney on November 2 last year.

“She told me she had been sexually assaulted, and then I got a version of what happened,” Officer Lackerdis said.

On Tuesday, messages between the alleged victim and her friends were read out in court. The alleged victim described how Mr Gunathilaka allegedly “changed” when they began having sex.

The main issue in the trial is Mr Gunathilaka’s state of mind, whether he removed the condom without the woman’s knowledge.

Mr Thangaraj told the court his client denied having non-consensual and unprotected sex with the woman because he had no option to remove the condom.

Meanwhile, the Crown alleges the woman only consented to protected sex.

The trial continues before Judge Huggett.