{"id":137316,"date":"2023-09-28T15:48:20","date_gmt":"2023-09-28T22:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=137316"},"modified":"2023-09-28T15:48:20","modified_gmt":"2023-09-28T22:48:20","slug":"danushka-gunathilaka-found-not-guilty-of-sexual-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2023\/09\/28\/danushka-gunathilaka-found-not-guilty-of-sexual-assault\/","title":{"rendered":"Danushka Gunathilaka found not guilty of sexual assault"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy Adaderana<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Sri Lankan cricketer Danushka Gunathilaka has been found not guilty of sexual intercourse without consent following an accusation of stealthing\u201d involving a Tinder date in Sydney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 32-year-old was arrested in November while in Australia for the T-20 World Cup, after he went for drinks with a woman near the Opera House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u0daf\u0dd2\u0db1 326\u0d9a\u0da7 \u0db4\u0dc3\u0dd4\u0dc0 \u0db0\u0db1\u0dd4\u0dc2\u0dca\u0d9a\u0da7 \u0db1\u0dd2\u0daf\u0dc4\u0dc3.. \u0db4\u0dc5\u0db8\u0dd4\u0dc0\u0dbb\u0da7 \u0db8\u0dcf\u0db0\u0dca\u200d\u0dba\u0da7 \u0d9a\u0dd3 \u0daf\u0dda \u0db8\u0dd9\u0db1\u0dca\u0db1...\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_iVeQxcOrSk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>He had chatted online for several days and then had dinner with the woman, who can\u2019t be identified for legal reasons, before being invited back to her eastern suburbs home, the NSW District Court heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Crown\u2019s case was that he removed a condom during intercourse without the woman\u2019s knowledge when she had consented only to protected sex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The complainant told the court she did not see the batsman remove the condom, but saw it on the floor shortly after the intercourse stopped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Woman gave two different accounts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Judge Sarah Huggett today found evidence about the genesis\u201d of the woman\u2019s complaint undermined the reliability of her evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The judge said the woman had given different accounts in her two statements; the second, given in April this year, went into further detail about the issue of stealthing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the judge said the complainant did not have a clear memory\u201d of what happened around the time she saw the condom on the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The evidence establishes there was no opportunity for the accused to remove the condom during the intercourse because that intercourse was continuous,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Judge Huggett considered the woman\u2019s first conversations with two close friends, which seemed to frame the complaint in terms of the roughness of the sexual activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Crown \u2018failed to establish woman\u2019s reliability\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr Gunathilaka\u2019s defence counsel argued the woman lied, gave self-serving evidence and appeared to not remember parts of the night that were inconsistent with a narrative\u201d she created, which morphed over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Murugan Thangaraj SC told the judge the Crown failed to establish the woman\u2019s reliability and highlighted what he said were inconsistencies and implausibility in her version of events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said it was completely illogical\u201d to claim she felt ambushed before lighting candles in her bedroom, effectively setting it up for a romantic sexual liaison\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In court, the woman alleged Mr Gunathilaka kissed her forcefully\u201d on the way home and on her couch, where she felt ambushed\u201d before moving to the bedroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She further alleged he choked her three times during sex, leaving her fearful for her life, and ignored requests to go slow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Judge Huggett found the woman was an intelligent witness who gave evidence in a considered way\u201d, and was overall a calm and responsive\u201d witness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the judge said there were times when it appeared the complainant was motivated by a desire to paint the accused in an unfavourable light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Police interview played in court<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In his police interview, Mr Gunathilaka said he told her his preference generally was to not use condoms but wanted to on the night because it was their first meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the interview, the cricketer made mention of there being two condoms because one malfunctioned \u2014 which the Crown said was a deliberate mistruth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Judge Huggett disagreed, finding that his answers were the result of confusion, fatigue, a language barrier and possibly memory\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I formed the distinct impression he was doing his best to be truthful and assist the police,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sitting in the interview room, Mr Gunathilaka told police the woman had organised him a taxi and he kissed her before leaving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She didn\u2019t even text me, I didn\u2019t text her also,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that\u2019s it, then I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr Gunathilaka has been in Australia on bail since mid-November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Outside court, Mr Gunathilaka said the verdict says everything\u201d and that his reputation had been restored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He thanked his lawyers, manager, as well as friends and family back in Sri Lanka, saying everyone believed me, so that means a lot to me\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m happy that my life is normal again, so I can\u2019t wait to go back and play cricket,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr Gunathilaka said the last eleven months have been really hard\u201d, particularly being in Australia without his parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br><em><strong>Source: ABC News<\/strong><br>-Agencies<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy Adaderana Sri Lankan cricketer Danushka Gunathilaka has been found not guilty of sexual intercourse without consent following an accusation of stealthing\u201d involving a Tinder date in Sydney. The 32-year-old was arrested in November while in Australia for the T-20 World Cup, after he went for drinks with a woman near the Opera House. He [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[134],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-judiciary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}