Wallabies star Kurtley Beale was “desperate” for sex before allegedly assaulting a woman in a bathroom stall, a court has been told.
Mr Beale, 35, is facing a jury trial at Sydney’s Downing Centre Court after pleading not guilty to sexual intercourse without consent and two counts of sexual touching.
Police allege Mr Beale groped a woman’s bottom at the Beach Road bar in Bondi on December 17, 2022, before forcing her into oral sex in a stall in the men’s bathroom.
Taking the stand on Monday, the 28-year-old woman told the jury Mr Beale had been “desperate” and “forceful” before barging in on her in the bathroom cubicle.
“(Mr Beale) says: ‘I really want to f**k you’. Those were the words he used. I said: ‘I can tell … (and) we can’t. You’re married. I’m engaged. I don’t want to’,” she said.
“He says: ‘Come on. Let’s find a corner somewhere around here’. I said: ‘What are you talking about, don’t be silly’ … I remember he kept saying the same thing.”
Asked about Mr Beale’s tone, the woman said: “It was desperate, it was forceful, it was … ‘I really wanna f**k you’.
The woman said she had tried to be “friendly”.
After continuing into the bathroom, the woman said Mr Beale barged in on her while she was seated in the stall before turning around and locking the door.
The woman’s evidence ended there before the lunch break. She previously told the jury that she “didn’t want to be anything other than friends” with Mr Beale.
In her earlier evidence, the woman told the jury that she was speaking with Mr Beale at the main bar when she “felt something … a hand” on her bottom.
“I am standing there trying to participate in the conversation when I noticed someone had grabbed my bum,” the woman, who cannot be named, told the court.
Asked what she felt next by Crown prosecutor Jeff Tunks, the woman said: “I’m aware of feeling shocked and surprised, and I turn and realise its Mr Beale.”
Breaking down crying while giving evidence, the woman said the hand was initially on the outside of her playsuit dress before it “moved down” to her bare skin.
She went on to claim the alleged grope lasted for “maybe a second and a half”, and after she told Mr Beale to stop he “pulled his hand away”.
The woman’s evidence on Monday is the first time she has taken to the stand during the jury trial and focused on the boozy night at the busy Bondi bar.
The woman told the court that she had been with her fiance in the pokies room when Mr Beale entered, with the pair discussing the former NSW Waratah’s wedding.
She told the court that she showed Mr Beale screenshots from the Instagram of his own wedding, commenting on the clothes worn by Mr Beale’s groomsmen.
During the conversation, the woman told the court Mr Beale said to her fiance “don’t do it bro, it’s a trap” before the group returned separately to the main bar.
In her opening submissions, Mr Beale’s lawyer, Margaret Cunneen SC, told the jury the bathroom act was “entirely consensual” and there was no criminal touching.
The jury were previously shown CCTV footage from inside the bar on the night of the alleged assault, including the alleged victim following Mr Beale into the bathroom.
The video captured the about 4½ minutes the pair spent inside the men’s bathroom, during which police allege Mr Beale forced the woman into oral sex.
Evidence is set to continue on Monday.