HEARING OF DANUSHKA’S CASE CONCLUDES VERDICT ON 28th SEPTEMBER

Danushka’s hearing concludes:

Verdict on September 28

An international cricketer pursued a Tinder date “relentlessly” with the night turning out “very differently to what the woman expected or wanted”, while his lawyers have told a court the woman’s evidence is “demonstrably unreliable”.

International cricket star Danushka Gunathilaka has stood trial at the Downing Centre District Court for the past four days after pleading not guilty to one charge of sexual assault without consent.

The charge relates to an incident on November 2 last year when it is alleged the 32-year-old removed a condom while having sex – known as stealthing – with a woman at her home in Sydney’s east.

The pair first met at the Opera Bar near the Sydney Opera House, where CCTV footage shows them embracing, before having drinks together in the city and heading back to the woman’s home via ferry.

The trial has now come to an end after both sides made their closing arguments on Thursday.

Crown prosecutor Gabrielle Steedman urged Judge Sarah Huggett to find the cricketer guilty, telling the court the complainant’s evidence “must be accepted beyond a reasonable doubt”.

“You must find there was no other rational inference other than the accused removed his condom during penile and vaginal intercourse,” Ms Steedman said.

Ms Steedman told the judge the night “turned out very differently to what she (the woman) expected or wanted”.

She said the cricketer was rough and did not “care or respect” any of the woman’s requests or boundaries.“It is entirely consistent with someone who would, in that state of mind, remove his condom despite the wishes of the complainant,” the prosecutor said.

Ms Steedman spoke about the “flavour of the messages” between the pair in the lead-up to the date and said Mr Gunathilaka “was pursuing the woman quite relentlessly”.

During his police interview played to the court earlier in the trial, Mr Gunathilaka told police that he preferred to have sex without a condom but denied saying he didn’t want to use one during their encounter.

Ms Steedman said Mr Gunathilaka was “annoyed” about having to wear a condom but knew the only way he was going to have sex was if he put one on. She told the court that he put the condom on to “appease” the woman, in what she described as a “negotiation”. The judge-alone trial has ended and Judge Sarah Huggett will deliver her verdict on September 28. –

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