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ARTICLE · 07 FEBRUARY 2024

Are pretext calls admissible in sexual assault cases?

What is a pretext call? Will a pretext call confession be admissible in trial? Offence of sexual assault discussed.

AustraliaCriminal Law

It has been reported that the complainant in the high profile sexual assault trial of former Wallabies player, Kurtley Beale, secretly recorded a phone call with him in order to induce him to say he groped and sexually assaulted her in a bathroom cubicle at a Bondi Beach pub in December 2022.

The call was admitted into evidence during the trial, which is currently underway in the New South Wales District Court.

In it, the complainant can be heard putting the allegations to Mr Beale and asking him what made him think she was “keen” as she “kept saying no” during the encounter.

Also before the jury were notes made by the complainant with the heading ‘Purpose of call' beneath which was written ‘convince him he is guilty' and ‘he will [be] better off if he confesses'.

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