The recorded interview of Sri Lankan cricketer Danushka Gunathilaka was played to Judge Sarah Huggett during the trial at the Downing Centre District Court on Wednesday, showing the cricketer become emotional as he spoke about a spiritual conversation he had with the alleged victim.

Gunathilaka told police the pair had sex before they started talking, where the woman said she had the power to “see the future”.

“She has a different power, I don’t know what you call them…I was so interested about those things because I am a Buddhist…” he said in the interview before he began crying.

“We were talking about religious things…she can see in a past life and we chatted about that kind of stuff.”

Gunathilaka told police officers he asked the woman to tell him about his past life and she told him they used to be Neighbours in Thailand.

The cricketer told police he became scared and “got a feeling” the woman was “a bit weird”, prompting him to tell the woman he wanted to go home. She ordered him a taxi.

The last message Gunathilaka sent the woman was “Thanks” after she provided him with the taxi details.

“I didn’t text her and she didn’t text me also,” Gunathilaka told police.

“That’s it, then I’m here.”

Gunathilaka told police the sex between the pair was consensual, and he didn’t pack condoms with him as he didn’t think there was a chance of it happening.

However, Detective Sergeant Laura Beecroft from the Sex Crimes Squad told the court Gunathilaka’s Burberry satchel he was wearing on the night was searched and two condoms were found in wrappers.

The cricketer was asked if at any point he put his penis “into her without a condom on”. “No, no, definitely not,” Gunathilaka replied.

However, Gunathilaka admitted to telling police he preferred to have sex without a condom, but denied saying he didn’t want to use one during their encounter.

He said: “I just said ‘normally I don’t like to have sex with condoms’, I didn’t say ‘I don’t want to have sex without a condom’.”

BOX

Police officer ‘threw out’ scrap paper with allegation of cricketer’s sexual assault

A police officer has been grilled in court after she revealed she wrote an allegation of a sexual assault by a Sri Lankan cricketer on scrap pieces of paper that she later threw in the bin.

Sri Lankan cricketer Danushka Gunathilaka is facing a judge-alone trial at the Downing Centre District Court after pleading not guilty to one charge of sexual assault without consent.

The charge relates to an incident in November last year when it is alleged Gunathilaka 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 as they meet, before having drinks together in the city and heading back to the woman’s home via ferry.

Crown prosecutor Gabrielle Steedman told the court on Wednesday that the woman decided to go to police the following Saturday, November 5, after discussing the matter with friends.

The woman first reported the matter to Constable Katrina Lackerdis at Rose Bay Police Station. She told the court that she didn’t have her police notebook with her so she wrote notes on scrap pieces of paper.

“I recall the (alleged) victim telling me within a short amount of time the accused proceeded to aggressively kiss, push, slap and bite her,” she told the court.

Constable Lackerdis told the court that she then sent photos of her notes to another officer who would be investigating the matter.

The officer was grilled by Gunathilaka’s barrister, Murugan Thangaraj SC, who asked if she agreed it was “important” the conversation be recorded.

“You recorded these notes on scrap pieces of paper didn’t you … you threw it out didn’t you?” Thangaraj said.

Constable Lackerdis told the court: “I shouldn’t have but I did.”

She told the court that she likely threw the notes out at the end of her shift.

Thangaraj continued to press the officer: “You were rostered to perform station duties … which includes answering the phone … which includes taking complaints from the public, including serious complaints.