A high-profile lawyer representing Wallabies star Kurtley Beale has accused his accuser of being “manipulative” and a “very good actress” following sexual assault allegations.
Mr Beale, 35, faces a jury trial at Sydney’s Downing Center Court after pleading not guilty to sexual intercourse without consent and two counts of sexual contact.
Police allege Mr Beale groped the woman’s buttocks at a Beach Road bar in Bondi on December 17, 2022, before forcibly performing oral sex on her in a men’s toilet cubicle.
In her closing address on Thursday, Beale’s lawyer, Margaret Cunnen SC, told the jury that sexual assault was “offensive and disgusting” but that her client was not guilty.
“What is also appalling are the false claims of sexual assault – false claims made to try to change the dynamic at a difficult time in one’s life,” Mr Cunneen said.
“I have no hesitation in saying that (the accuser) is a manipulative woman who manipulated the circumstances of the night to turn the situation around and make herself the victim.
“Because everyone must feel that way if they are the person who everyone felt sorry for and had to support, the sister or daughter-in-law who was sexually assaulted.”
Mr Cunen told the jury the woman’s fiancé had admitted in his evidence that the pair had been at “the lowest point in their relationship” since the argument.
She also hit back at the Crown’s claim that Mr Beale may have proven guilty in a secretly recorded phone call about a month later.
The woman first called Mr Beale to make the allegations, and the rugby star admitted he had “misjudged the situation” after initially saying the pair had hooked up.
“Of course I have remorse. His wife knows what’s going on on the phone. “If she’s looking for guilt, of course she’ll find it,” she said.
“But if the remorse is about something done within the marriage, that is not ideal and has nothing to do with guilt over a serious crime.”
She later added: “Nowhere in that call did he (Mr. Beale) acknowledge or agree that he thought she was not consenting that night.”
Mr Cunen then told the jury the woman was a “very good actress” who manipulated Mr Beale who “really believed and conveyed her consent”.
“When she spoke to him on the phone, when she said something else, Mr. Beale said, ‘Well, I guess I misread the situation.’ “That’s what he’s talking about,” she said.
Mr Cunneen said that without CCTV, “we probably would have set up a false account that she followed Mr Beale to the toilet – who follows who is important.”
Jurors heard the woman told her partner’s family it was the women’s toilet and not the men’s and told others that Beale had followed her.
In his submissions, prosecutor Jeff Tunks told jurors that “what the defendant says in ordinary conversation may amount to a remorse.”
Mr Tunks said: “You might think he (Mr Beale) looks worried, or you might think he is speaking calmly to hear her, in a contrite voice, a conciliatory voice.”
“In general, you might think he appears to be reflecting and recognizing the seriousness of the situation. And you might think that he doesn’t seem to pass on her responsibility to her at any stage.”
In his two-day address, Mr Tunks urged the jury to consider the evidence “as a whole” despite contradictions in the woman’s evidence presented in court.
“She spends the next few days telling people what she’s talking about. And it’s clear she gave different accounts of different aspects to different people,” he said.
“The effect of what she says happened to her that night, if you accept that it happened to her, can affect the way she behaves that night and the next day.”
In his speech, Mr Tunks reminded the jury of evidence from the 29-year-old’s fiancé, who told the court she woke up in the morning to hearing her “blisteringly screaming”.
Meanwhile, her father said his daughter looked “distressed” and her sister-in-law, to whom she made the allegations, said her daughter looked “dizzy”.
Mr. Tunks called the jury on Thursday to face all three criminal charges, including allegations that Mr. Beale spun and bent over a woman in a concession stand.
In evidence, the woman told the jury that Mr Beale bent her over with his thumb and said: “Do you want to have sex?” She said before she righted herself and left.
Mr Tunks said: “It was not careless or accidental for him to hold her in this way, rotating her and bending her forward, with his penis out of his trousers.”
Mr Kernen dismissed the claim as “absurd” and said there was no time for it to happen. Likewise, she dismissed her claims of stuttering, saying, “Blink her eyes and you’ll miss it.”
On Wednesday, Mr Tunks urged jurors to consider the woman’s side of the case while refusing to accept all of her evidence in court, saying she struck a “defiant” tone.
“Other than that, you might think she was more or less firmly consistent in her claim that she did not consent to any sexual activity with the defendant,” he said.
He later added: “You might think she was presented as a rather cautious and defiant witness in her cross-examination. Maybe you think she’s as combative as she gets.”
The jury was presented with a range of evidence during the two-week trial, including evidence from the woman’s friends and family and CCTV footage.
Mr Beale’s barrister, Margaret Cunneen SC, argued the woman had consented to the encounter, had “controlled” it and even sought sympathy.
Under cross-examination, Mr Cunen questioned the woman, her fiancé and her family over arguments between the pair throughout the week of the alleged assault.
The trial continues Thursday.
