Sri Lankan cricketer Danushka Gunathilaka, who was accused of rape by a woman last year, dropped three of his four sexual assault charges in Sydney on Thursday. Gunathilaka was charged with four counts of unauthorized sexual intercourse, for which the 32-year-old was arrested by Sydney police from the team hotel last November during the T20 World Cup. However, the public prosecutor dropped three of the charges in a Sydney court. According to the police, the Sri Lankan batter and the 29-year-old woman met through a dating app. After their date, the two returned to the woman’s Rose Bay home in Sydney, where Gunathilaka allegedly strangled and raped her.
“Prosecutor Hugh Buddin, on behalf of the Director of Public Prosecutions, told the court that one charge had been upheld but the remaining three cases of unauthorized sexual intercourse had been dropped,” the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
The remaining charge, according to the police fact sheet filed with the Downing Center local court, is that the Sri Lankan engaged in “forceful” sexual intercourse, allegedly “placing a hand around her neck for 20 to 30 seconds and strangled her”. “.
Gunathilaka allegedly restricted the woman’s breathing for six seconds, before she “tried to remove the suspect’s hand by grabbing his wrist, but the suspect squeezed her neck more tightly for another 10 seconds.”
The woman “feared for her life and could not get away from the suspect”, according to the police magazine.
Gunathilaka was part of the Sri Lankan squad for the T20 World Cup squad last year. However, he only played in their first game against Namibia. He was ruled out of the tournament due to a hamstring injury.
Gunathilaka, who has represented Sri Lanka in eight Tests, 47 ODIs and 46 T20 Internationals, is no stranger to controversy.
In 2021, he was suspended for one year by SLC after bursting the team’s bio-secure bubble along with teammates Kusal Mendis and Niroshan Dickwella during the England tour.
SLC had also given him a six-month suspension in 2018 after violating the team’s curfew. In the same year, Gunathilaka was also suspended after his unnamed friend was accused of raping a Norwegian woman.
In 2017, the board had him suspended for six limited overs games after learning that Gunathilaka missed training sessions and turned up for a match without his cricket kit.
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