Sri Lankan cricketer Danushka Gunathilaka, who was accused of rape by a lady final yr, had three out of his 4 sexual assault prices dropped in Sydney on Thursday. Gunathilaka was charged with 4 counts of sexual activity with out consent for which the 32-year-old had been arrested by the Sydney police from the workforce resort final November through the T20 World Cup.
However, the general public prosecutor withdrew three of the costs in a Sydney courtroom. According to the police, the Sri Lankan batter and the 29-year-old lady met by way of a relationship app. After their date, the 2 returned to the girl’s residence at Sydney’s Rose Bay the place Gunathilaka allegedly choked her and raped her.
“Prosecutor Hugh Buddin, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, told the court one charge had been certified but the remaining three counts of sexual intercourse without consent had been withdrawn,” the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
The remaining cost, in line with the police info sheet filed with the Downing Centre Local Court, is that the Sri Lankan engaged in ‘forceful’ sexual activity, throughout which he allegedly ‘put one hand around her neck for 20 to 30 seconds and choked her’. Gunathilaka allegedly restricted the girl’s respiration for six seconds, earlier than she ‘tried to remove the accused’s hand by grabbing his wrist, however the accused squeezed tighter round her neck for an extra 10 seconds’.
Sri Lankan worldwide cricketer Danushka Gunathilaka has had three of 4 prices withdrawn regarding the alleged sexual assault of a lady in her residence in Sydney Australia.
Prosecutors informed courtroom one cost had been licensed however the remaining three counts of sexual_ pic.twitter.com/ss6B2g7pM6
— Dasuni Athauda (@AthaudaDasuni) May 18, 2023
The lady ‘was fearing for her life and could not get away from the accused’, in line with the police info sheet. Gunathilaka was a part of the Sri Lankan workforce for the T20 World Cup workforce final yr. However, he solely performed of their first sport towards Namibia. He was dominated out of the event attributable to a hamstring tear.
Gunathilaka, who has represented Sri Lanka in eight Tests, 47 ODIs and 46 T20 Internationals, is not any stranger to controversies. In 2021, he was suspended by SLC for one yr after he breached the workforce’s bio-secure bubble on the tour of England together with teammates Kusal Mendis and Niroshan Dickwella.
SLC had additionally handed him a six-month ban in 2018 after he had damaged the workforce curfew. In the identical yr, Gunathilaka was additionally suspended after his unnamed buddy was accused of raping a Norwegian girls. In 2017, the board had suspended him for six restricted overs video games after it learnt about Gunathilaka lacking coaching classes and turning up for a sport with out his cricket gear.
