Sri Lankan cricket worldwide Danushka Gunathilaka has been discovered not responsible of raping a lady he met on a courting website through the South Asian staff’s tour of Australia final November.
Decide Sarah Huggett acquitted the 32-year-old participant as he sat at Sydney’s Downing Centre District Courtroom on Thursday listening to the choice.
Huggett discovered that the alleged sufferer, who can’t be legally named, was an clever witness who didn’t intentionally give false proof about the usage of a condom however was motivated by a want to color the cricketer in an unfavourable mild.
“I discover that the proof relating to the grievance removed from helps the complainant. Fairly it undermines the reliability of her proof,” she mentioned.
Gunathilaka and the lady met for drinks at a bar earlier than having pizza collectively in downtown Sydney and catching a ferry to the lady’s dwelling within the metropolis’s jap suburbs. The lady accused him of varied acts of aggression and violence. Police initially introduced 4 expenses in opposition to the 32-year-old, who was arrested at a metropolis lodge simply hours earlier than Sri Lankan staff was resulting from fly out dwelling on November 6. Prosecutors later dropped three of these expenses.
Gunathilaka maintained his innocence, pleading not responsible to at least one depend of sexual activity with out consent. Throughout the judge-alone trial, defence legal professionals attacked the credibility of the lady, claiming her story shifted over time and that she edited her model of occasions to color Gunathilaka as an aggressive particular person.
Gunathilaka had been on bail through the trial, however was unable to play worldwide cricket or return to his hometown of Colombo in Sri Lanka. He travelled to Australia with Sri Lanka’s ICC T20 World Cup squad final 12 months, however solely performed within the staff’s first recreation earlier than being dominated out of the match with a hamstring damage.
