Sri Lankan cricketer Danushka Gunathilaka granted bail on sexual assault charges

Star Sri Lankan batter Danushka Gunathilaka was granted bail in a second bid after the Sydney court heard he had the support of the Sri Lankan cricket association and government, and a surety of AUD 150,000 was offered. He was arrested on November 6 at the Hyatt Regency hotel.

Gunathilaka was in custody for 11 nights after being refused bail in Downing Centre Local Court in the previous week. However, he yet again appeared in the local court on November 17, Thursday, to make a desperate request for release backed by the defence barrister Murugan Thangaraj, SC.

Under the strict bail conditions, he will not be allowed to access any of his social media and dating profiles once released from prison. He will also not be able to leave Australia as his passport is surrendered, according to Dailly Mail reports.

Police allege the cricketer matched with a woman on a dating app

The pair had drinks in the city before they went back to the woman’s home in Sydney’s eastern suburbs at about 11 pm, according to police. The top-order batsman allegedly forced himself on top of the woman when the pair moved to the bedroom. Police allege the woman was “in shock” and did not consent to sex without a condom. She again asked him to use a condom but he refused and forcefully engaged in sexual activity, according to police claims. 

Sergeant Kerry-Ann Mckinnon said they accepted the material before the court, including new bail conditions, and allowed the applicant to make a secondary application. He further said that the woman was being “harassed by unknown people with Sri Lankan names through her social media” and had to shut it down.

Thangaraj said that his client was “being supported by a Sri Lankan cricket association and Sri Lankan government, if he breaches his bail, of course, his career would be over,” he said.

He said if Gunathilaka was an Australian citizen, “of course he would be on bail in these circumstances, we know, on the complainant’s own case, there was consensual oral sex and consensual vaginal intercourse prior to any problem arising on her version, It is not a strong prosecution case.”