Wallabies star Kurtley Beale’s alleged sexual assault case: Toilet CCTV is ‘at odds’ with his accuser’s claims, his lawyer tells jury

Lawyers representing Wallabies star Kurtley Beale say CCTV video from the night of an alleged sexual assault is ‘at odds’ with some claims from the alleged victim.

Beale, 35, pleaded not guilty at Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court late last year to sexual intercourse without consent, and two counts of sexual touching.

Police allege the former NSW Waratahs star forced a 28-year-old woman to have oral sex with him in the toilets of Bondi’s Beach Road bar on December 18, 2022.

Beale is alleged to have also earlier sexually touched the woman minutes before midnight on December 17 while at the bar, which police say was not consented to.

Defence barrister Margaret Cunneen SC told the jury during empanelment on Monday they needed to keep their mind’s open despite Beale’s status as a sport star.

‘There are some people in the community who hear an allegation against a man… and think well, he’s a sportsman, he must have done it. He’s guilty,’ she said.

‘We need people who can act as judges for a time and decide just on the evidence in this case, not because they’ve formed views in other cases about other men.

‘It has to be decided on the evidence in this case, and not because of any thoughts about what has happened with other sportsmen or other men.’

Ms Cunneen told the jury CCTV footage from the bar, which the jury is expected to be shown, was ‘at odds’ with some of the woman’s claims.

Beale arrives at court on Monday with his wife Maddi 

‘We have evidence the woman who makes these accusations followed Mr Beale into the toilet and not the other way around,’ Ms Cunneen told the court.

‘There’s two cases – we need people with an open mind, we just ask that you keep an open mind until all of the evidence is in this trial.’

Crown prosecutor Jeff Tunks told jurors Beale had allegedly ‘placed his penis in (the woman’s) mouth while in the cubicle of the men’s bathroom’.

Of 54 potential jurors, 12 were selected for the trial before Justice Graham Turnbull at the Sydney court. They include seven women and five men.