Sri Lankan cricketer Danushka Gunathilaka has launched a second bail bid and will face a NSW Supreme Court hearing in December after being charged over an alleged sexual assault.
The 31-year-old was arrested in the early hours of November 6 at the Hyatt Regency hotel on Sussex Street following the side’s Twenty20 World Cup loss to England. The team flew home without him.
Gunathilaka has been charged with four counts of sexual intercourse without consent. He is accused of repeatedly choking and sexually assaulting a 29-year-old woman in Sydney on November 2, days after they matched on Tinder.
Police facts allege the complainant had been clear that she “did not consent to engaging in sexual intercourse without a condom” or sexual intercourse that involved choking.
The document states Gunathilaka lives in Sri Lanka with his parents, has “no ties to the Sydney or Australian community” and that “investigators believe he is a flight risk”.
His initial bail application was refused by Magistrate Robert Williams in Downing Centre Local Court on November 7. The hearing was held in closed court before a suppression order application brought by police was withdrawn on November 9.
In the NSW Supreme Court on Monday, solicitor Alen Sahinovic said the defence counsel had been briefed in the case. He sought a bail hearing date for Gunathilaka.
Sahinovic told the court the 30-minute hearing would be around the “unacceptable risk test only”. Under that test, which applies in all bail hearings, bail must be granted if the judge is satisfied the applicant does not pose an unacceptable risk to the community or of failing to appear in court.
Registrar George Galanis listed the bail hearing on December 8.
Sri Lanka Cricket has suspended Gunathilaka from all forms of the game.
(Brisbane Times)
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