By Jamie McKinnell for ABC
Former Wallaby Kurtley Beale. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
A woman who alleges she was sexually assaulted by rugby player Kurtley Beale has told a Sydney jury she was "shocked" and "surprised" when he touched her buttocks in a Bondi Beach bar.
Warning: Some readers might find the details in this story distressing.
Mr Beale is facing trial in the NSW District Court and has pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual intercourse without consent and two of sexual touching.
The 35-year-old Wallaby was at the Beach Road Hotel the same night as the complainant and her fiancé in December 2022.
The woman, who cannot be identified, on Monday recalled having drinks during a lunch that day and later travelling to a friend's house, where she had further alcohol and two "very small" lines of cocaine.
The jury heard she met up with her fiancé at the pub and when she met Mr Beale, she told him she liked the suits she'd seen in his wedding photos on Instagram.
The complainant recalled various interactions that night in the busy hotel as she had more drinks.
She said at one point she walked past Mr Beale and he appeared "heavily intoxicated".
She recalled at another point standing in a group that included Mr Beale and her fiancé.
"That's when I notice someone grabbed my bum," the woman told the court.
"The next thing I'm aware of is feeling shocked and surprised and I turn and realise it's Mr Beale."
She said Mr Beale was next to her, either sitting or standing, and said the touch on her left buttock lasted for a second and a half.
She told the court she said "stop".
"He pulled his hand away when I said stop," the woman said, demonstrating in court a motion she used to swat the hand away.
The complainant then wiped her eyes with tissues just before the court took a break.
'I kept saying we can't'
When the court resumed, the complainant recalled later on in the night, she was on her way to the men's bathroom to avoid a queue in the women's toilets, when she heard someone call out to her from behind before she made it there.
According to the woman, Mr Beale was with another man, and after she approached, Mr Beale grabbed her around the shoulders and said to her several times: "I really want to f*** you."
"I kept saying we can't, you're married, I'm engaged, I don't want to," she said.
"He says to me, 'Come on, let's find a corner somewhere around here'."
She told the court she responded: "What are you talking about, don't be silly".
She described Mr Beale's tone as desperate, forceful and direct, but recalled responding in a "friendly" manner so as not to "agitate" him.
The woman went to the men's toilets, entered a cubicle and slammed the door, but it remained "ajar".
She testified she was sitting down when Mr Beale came in, turned around and latched the door.
The woman said Mr Beale asked her to perform oral sex and alleged he then sexually assaulted her after she repeatedly refused.
She also alleged he then grabbed her hips and turned her around, before she moved to unlock the door to leave.
"He says 'please can we f***' and I say no again, and he looks at me up and down and he goes 'well f*** off then'."
Beale's version of events 'quite different'
Mr Beale's defence counsel, Margaret Cunneen SC, last week told the court there was a "quite different" version of events to what is alleged by the Crown.
Ms Cunneen said the touch in the bar was fleeting and could not be considered criminal in the context of hugging and contact between the group members.
She said the woman had followed Mr Beale into the male toilets before initiating fellatio.
There was "no force, only mutual agreement," Ms Cunneen said, urging the jurors to keep an open mind.
The trial, before Judge Graham Turnbull, is expected to run for two to three weeks.
-This story was first published by the ABC