Former Wallaby Kurtley Beale phoned his manager to tell him “a bird” had phoned him “out of the blue” and said she hadn’t consented to the oral sex they’d had in a toilet cubicle at a Bondi pub.
WARNING: Some readers might find the details in this story distressing.
The 35-year-old is on trial in the New South Wales District Court and has pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual intercourse without consent and two counts of sexual touching.
The complainant has previously told the jury that Mr Beale repeatedly groped her buttocks on a night out at the Beach Road Hotel in December 2022 before following her into a toilet cubicle and forcing her to perform oral sex.
On Tuesday the court was played a phone tap of a conversation Mr Beale had with his manager Isaac Moses shortly after the complainant had phoned him to confront him about the situation, which was about a month after the night at the pub.
“I was out at the pub like before Chrissy,” Mr Beale told his manager, “and a bird has rang me out of the blue saying that’s she’s like a bit upset because I misread the whole situation and scenario.”
“She performed oral sex on me, but like it wasn’t really, it was literally like two seconds, it wasn’t even … but then she was like I didn’t really consent to that action.”
He told his manager his reaction had been “f**k,” and then he had asked her if she was recording the call.
Mr Moses told Mr Beale the complainant might have already been to police and then said to his client: “Kurtley obviously she did consent, otherwise that wouldn’t have happened, true?”
“Yes,” Mr Beale replied.
“That’s what I thought,” Mr Moses said before telling Mr Beale he would call the footballer back on his wife Madeleine’s mobile.
“My phone is about to go dead,” he said.
Last week the complainant was grilled about the phone call she made to Mr Beale, which had also been recorded by police as part of their investigation.
During that conversation the woman asked Mr Beale, “don’t you remember me saying, like, no?” and he replied “That’s pretty f**ing, that’s not on… ” and repeatedly apologised for what he said was “misreading the situation”.
During cross-examination last week, Mr Beale’s defence counsel Margaret Cunneen SC raised five pages of handwritten notes the complainant wrote before the call, which included the statement “purpose of call: convince him he is guilty and not innocent”.
Employee witnesses speak in court
On Tuesday the court also heard that police had not interviewed two pub employees who were in the bathroom at the same time as the alleged assault occurred until after Mr Beale had been arrested and charged.
Chef Amar Adakhiri and kitchen hand Nirmal Tamang had both told the court they had noticed a woman’s feet in the cubicle and had not heard any noises of protest coming from inside.
Mr Beale’s defence barrister Margaret Cunneen SC pressed Mr Adakhiri on what he had heard while using the urinal.
“You said this (to police) didn’t you sir, ‘when I was using the urinal I heard the sound like the girl suck the dick of the boy’,” she said.
“Yes,” the witness replied. “It sounds like someone chewing with an open mouth.”
Ms Cunneen then asked Mr Adakhiri: “Did you hear any sound of someone being distressed?”
“No,” he replied.
“Did you hear anyone protesting or saying no or stop,” Ms Cunneen asked.
“No,” Mr Adakhiri replied.
Ms Cunneen asked the officer in charge of the case, Constable Christine Tesoriero why she had arrested Mr Beale before interviewing key witnesses.
“Can I suggest to you that you in this case arrested and charged first and investigated later?” Ms Cunneen asked.
“That’s not correct,” Ms Tesoriero replied.
Discussion about this post