By Sarah McPhee
Warning: Graphic content
A woman allegedly sexually assaulted by Wallabies star Kurtley Beale told her family and future in-laws about the incident the following day, and was shaking and crying when she said he had pinned her up against the wall and tried to have sex, a jury has heard.
Prosecutors allege Beale touched the woman on the buttock at Bondi’s Beach Road Hotel on December 17, 2022, forced her to perform oral sex in the men’s bathrooms and grabbed her hips.
Kurtley Beale outside court with his wife Maddi Beale.Credit: Nick Moir
Beale, 35, has pleaded not guilty to sexual intercourse without consent and two counts of sexual touching. The defence argues the sexual activity inside the cubicle was consensual.
Beale’s trial has seen CCTV of Beale walking into the bathroom, followed by the woman, who claims he then barged into a cubicle she was using. The woman’s fiance was also at the pub that night.
The court has heard the woman had a planned visit to her fiance’s family the day after the incident, during which she had intended to go wedding dress shopping.
Giving evidence on Monday, the fiance’s mother said the complainant was upset, and she asked her, “What’s wrong?”
“She said, ‘Kurtley Beale followed me into the toilet and pinned me up against the wall and tried to have sex with me,’” the woman told the court.
She said the complainant recalled she had come out of the toilet and told her fiance “something really weird happened”, but that her fiance was very drunk and she felt if she had told him more, he would have ended up at the police station.
The court heard the complainant told her future mother-in-law Beale “followed me into the ladies toilets”. The woman said she told the complainant she would take her to the police station.
“She was very upset. She was crying, she was shaking, shaking a lot,” the woman said.
She said the complainant was “very nervous” on the drive, and she asked her whether Beale had been drunk.
“She said, ‘He was pissed, I don’t think he’d remember.’ She said, ‘He was extremely pissed, he could hardly stand up, and he was pinching me on the arse all night.’
“She said, words similar to, ‘He tried to put his d--- in my mouth’. I said, ‘Why didn’t you bite the f---ing thing?’”
The complainant’s future sister-in-law gave evidence the complainant appeared anxious when they arrived at the family’s address, began to cry and said, “I was assaulted last night”.
“I said, ‘How do you mean?’ She said, ‘He’s a high-profile person,’” the sister-in-law said, reading from her statement.
“She said, ‘Someone was touching my bum quite a lot throughout the night. I needed to go to the bathroom and I closed the cubicle door but left it unlocked. Someone followed me and got inside the cubicle. Someone said, Can you f--- me? Can you f--- me?’
“He pulled his pants down and pulled his penis out. He put his penis in my face. I pushed against him and said ‘No, I’m engaged’ … Someone said, ‘Well f--- you then, and left.’”
The sister-in-law said she asked who “someone” was, and the complainant said Kurtley Beale.
Under cross-examination, she said the complainant had appeared hungover and “dishevelled”.
The court heard that the complainant also spoke to her own sister that day.
“She said, ‘I was in the cubicle and he [Beale] came in. I didn’t think anything of it because I’ve pee’d in front of my friends before,’” the sister recalled.
“She said, ‘It was weird, he came into the cubicle [with me], and I wasn’t overly concerned. I didn’t think what happened would happen.’”
The complainant’s mother gave evidence that she heard her daughter crying in her room on the morning after the alleged assault, and the complainant told her that she had “hurt her wrist”.
She said her daughter called her after arriving at her in-laws and said, “I’ve been sexually assaulted,” and that it was by Beale.
“I was just in shock,” the mother said. “I think my first reaction was … why did you leave?
“She said she just had to get away. She needed to get out and process what had happened.”
She said her daughter sounded “quite detached and unemotional”.
The court heard the woman later asked her parents not to wash the outfit she had worn to the pub, as police may collect it to test for evidence.
The complainant’s father said he had seen his daughter briefly the morning after, and she had “fear on her face”.
“She was holding back from not crying, and she couldn’t look me in the eye,” he said. “For me, that’s mental anguish.”
He said when she later told him of the alleged assault, she was crying and “scared that because of his [Beale’s] profile, people will hate us”.
Asked under cross-examination by Beale’s barrister Margaret Cunneen, SC, whether they knew the complainant and her fiance had argued the previous week, the woman’s parents and future in-laws said they had not.
The trial continues on Tuesday before Judge Graham Turnbull.
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