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‘Desperate’ Beale grabbed woman’s bottom, court told

Evidence heard against Beale in sexual assault trial

A woman allegedly sexually assaulted by rugby union star Kurtley Beale says she was “shocked and surprised” when he grabbed her bottom at a Bondi pub.

Beale, 35, is facing a NSW District Court trial charged with one count of sexual intercourse without consent and two counts of sexual touching related to an alleged assault on the woman at the Beach Road Hotel in December 2022.

The former Wallabies playmaker has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

On Monday, the alleged victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she was at the venue with a group of friends, her fiance and Beale when the touching occurred.

She had not previously met the rugby player, she said.

The woman, who was wearing a g-string under a navy play suit at the time, told the jury she felt a hand move down her buttocks onto “bare skin”.

“Someone grabbed my bum,” she said.

“I turn around and realise it’s Mr Beale.”

The woman, who became emotional recalling the alleged incident, said the touch lasted about a second-and-a-half and that she used the palm of her left hand to “swat” away Beale’s hand.

“He pulled his hand away when I said ‘stop’,” she said.

“I was shocked, I was surprised.”

The woman said she was later heading to the men’s toilets, which she said she used as they were close and less busy than others, when Beale yelled out “‘oi” before grabbing her.

She said Beale then repeatedly told her: “I really want to f*** you.”

“It was desperate, it was forceful, it was ‘I really want to f*** you’ direct,” she said.

The woman allegedly replied: “We can’t, you’re married, I’m engaged, I don’t want to’.”

She added she remained friendly during the exchange in order not to agitate Beale.

“I didn’t want to be anything else than friends,” she told the court.

Before the alleged incidents, the woman said she observed Beale to be “heavily intoxicated” and at one point she asked him: “Are you on cocaine?”

Prior to meeting Beale, the woman said she had known of him through rugby and had followed him on social media.

“Do you follow him on Instagram?” crown prosecutor Jeff Tunks asked.

“I did,” the complainant replied.

The woman arrived at the pub after leaving a restaurant at lunch “tipsy” then going to a friend’s house, where she drank more alcohol and snorted two lines of cocaine, the court heard.

Tunks previously told the trial he expects the complainant to allege Beale grabbed the back of her head and placed his penis in her mouth inside a cubicle in the men’s bathroom at the pub.

Beale’s barrister Margaret Cunneen SC has told the jury there was no force involved and the defence case was that the complainant consented.

Cunneen has urged the jury to consider the woman’s honesty and reliability when she gives evidence.

The trial continues before Judge Graham Turnbull.

1800 RESPECT 1800 737 732

National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028

– AAP

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