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Woman feared being hated for airing Beale rape claim

Family members of the woman accusing Kurtley Beale of sexual assault have given evidence.

Family members of the woman accusing Kurtley Beale of sexual assault have given evidence. Photo: AAP

A woman who claims she was sexually assaulted by rugby star Kurtley Beale held concerns about telling police due to the former Wallaby’s public profile, a court has heard.

Beale, 35, is facing one count of sexual intercourse without consent and two counts of sexual touching in the NSW District Court, following the alleged incident at Bondi’s Beach Road Hotel in December, 2022.

The woman alleges Beale touched her backside and forced her to perform oral sex in a toilet cubicle, claiming later he was “extremely pissed” and likely would not remember the incident.

The woman’s father told a hearing on Monday he saw “fear on her face” before her telling him of the allegations.

“I’m scared that because of his profile people will hate us,” the father remembered his daughter saying.

The woman expressed similar concerns over Beale’s profile to her sister, as well as a fear she would not be believed.

“People don’t generally believe what girls say or judge in their favour – especially when alcohol is involved,” the sister recalled the woman saying.

Beale has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

During a second week of hearings, the trial has heard from a number of family members and friends who described the woman as being highly distressed and crying a lot in the period after the alleged assault.

The court also heard from the woman’s future mother-in-law, who she visited in Queensland to shop for wedding dresses the morning after the alleged assault.

The mother-in-law said the woman was crying and shaking as she revealed she had been sexually assaulted by Beale the night before.

While being driven to report the incident to police, the alleged victim said Beale forcibly put his penis in her mouth.

“Why didn’t you bite the f***ing thing?” the mother-in-law said she replied.

The woman told the mother-in-law that Beale was highly intoxicated during and in the lead-up to the alleged assault.

“He was extremely pissed,” the woman reportedly said.

“He could hardly stand up and he was pinching me on the arse all night.”

The woman also explained she didn’t tell her fiance who was in a different section of the pub at the time and also “very drunk” for fears he would “end up in the police station”, the court heard.

Last week, the court heard four gruelling days of testimony from the woman, who was cross-examined at length by Beale’s lawyer Margaret Cunneen SC.

Cunneen suggested the woman had concocted the rape allegation to gain sympathy from her fiance and save her impending marriage when the couple’s relationship was strained.

“You have made this up for your own purposes to save the proposed marriage that you had been anticipating so excitedly,” she said.

Cunneen further suggested the woman invited Beale to the bathroom and willingly engaged in oral sex with him.

But the complainant denied her contact with Beale was consensual and that she had been flirtatious with him before the alleged assault.

The trial is set to continue until at least the end of the week.

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)

National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028

– AAP

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