Sydney Court lifts curfew for Sri Lanka player Danushka Gunathilaka on rape charges

Sri Lanka cricketer Danushka Gunathilaka has been allowed to use WhatsApp and can go out at night after having his bail for rape charges varied. The cricketer was accused of sexual assault in Sydney in November last year.

The 31-year-old cricketer is facing four counts of sexual intercourse without consent. He allegedly assaulted a 29-year-old woman after they matched on the dating app Tinder. While meeting up for a date, both headed to her home in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. The woman alleged that the cricketer refused to wear a contraceptive and choked her thrice. 

Gunathilaka was granted bail by a magistrate in November 2022 itself. However, the cricketer was banned from using Tinder and other social media platforms, as he was facing criminal charges.

The curfew against Gunathilaka was lifted following his application to vary his bail in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court on February 23. The Crown gave permission in varying his bail so that he can use WhatsApp once again. However, the Sydney Court magistrate Jennifer Atkinson put a rider while granting some relief to the cricketer.

"It’s not to be used for the purposes of facilitating or managing dating," she clarified.

Magistrate granted the application to vary a condition on a night-time curfew, despite Crown prosecutor George Rixon objecting to it. Mr Rion said that, "There are likely to be more opportunities for this alleged offending to occur at night.”

"But there’s nothing unique about it that it would have occurred at night and couldn’t occur during the day,"  Ms Atkinson argued.

Magistrate said that it will be more apparent to the public that the accused had been charged and was on bail due to his high profile.

"Respectfully, I disagree that this person is necessarily immediately identifiable in the community," Mr Rixon said.

Gunathilaka was arrested on Sussex Street on November 6, 2022, and subsequently taken to Sydney City police station following an investigation into alleged sexual assault. The cricketer came to Australia along with the national squad for the ICC T20 World Cup last year.

He was caught by police hours before catching a flight to head back home. With his curfew having been lifted, Magistrate warned the cricketer that he would possibly face many months in custody waiting for a trial or sentencing in case he breached bail. The case is expected to be heard again in the court in April 2023.

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