If the Australian Rugby Union thought the appointment of a new coach and the fine handed out by an independent tribunal had consigned the Kurtley Beale episode to the dustbin of history, it was badly mistaken.

If anything, the controversy is more toxic – and potentially destructive – than ever.

One key piece of the puzzle remains to be answered, and it could shred reputations: who sent the second text to former Wallabies business manager Di Patston?

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This text was supposedly far more offensive than the image of a naked, obese woman captioned “Di” that was mistakenly sent by Beale to Patston in June, and for which he was fined $45,000 on Friday night.

The game is split down the middle into pro- and anti-Beale camps. Both have been out in force since Friday’s verdict, presenting diametrically opposed versions of the truth.

The Beale camp is led by News Corp heavy hitters Rebecca Wilson and Miranda Devine in The Daily Telegraph, and 2GB shock jock Alan Jones.

It came out swinging on Saturday with a Telegraph story painting Beale as the victim of the affair, complete with pictures of him posing with his girlfriend. Beale said he was “vindicated” by the hearing’s finding that the second text was sent by a “third party”.

“I never told anything but the truth,” he said.

The anti-Beale camp responded in Monday’s Australian, another News Corp organ, in which Patston broke her silence to veteran rugby union writer Wayne Smith and discussed in harrowing terms how the text from Beale and subsequent furore had pushed her to the edge of suicide.

Patston appeared upset with the outcome of the tribunal.

“If it was one image or two or 20, what does it matter?” she asked.

“They were both of very obese women in a very derogatory way. I am overweight and they were both naked with everything exposed.

“He (Beale) doesn’t know my background. I’ve had an ongoing illness myself and I’m on medication. There’s a whole story behind it.

“I actually said to my dad I felt bullied into not telling anyone about the photos because I was embarrassed.

“I’m not good. Life is probably the worst it has ever been. I’m alive but there have been times I haven’t wanted to be here.”

She said she had come to the reluctant conclusion that women who felt sexually humiliated or degraded in the workplace should keep quiet and not complain.

The Australian received a leaked copy of Beale’s statement, in which he acknowledged he did not reveal to Patston when he initially apologised to her that he had sent the offensive image to some Waratahs mates six days earlier.

“I did not tell Di any details, however, for fear of hurting her or inflaming the situation,” Beale wrote in his statement.

She found out only when sent a copy of the statement last Tuesday.

“Even as I was cuddling him, he said ‘I promise you, Di, I haven’t sent this to anyone’,” she said.

“It’s like he played me for a fool. If he had said to me it was the second time he did it in the matter of seven days, no way, absolutely no way, would I have just said ‘That’s OK’.

Smith wrote that the revelation about the image sent to the Waratahs “completely undermines Beale’s claims that he had acted on the spur of the moment and without malice”.

Smith was less exercised about the mystery of who sent the second, separate text to Patston, which was central to a discussion on radio on Monday between Jones and Wilson.

The unshamedly pro-Beale pair – Wilson on several occasions referred to him as simply “Kurtley” – accused the ARU and its supporters of trying to run the player out of game based on the “lie” that Beale sent the second text.

They implicated Patston, former coach Ewen McKenzie, ARU chief executive Bill Pulver and the ARU board in a disinformation campaign against Beale.

Wilson portrayed the interview in The Australian as part of that campaign.

“If she was so determined that she was honest, she would have appeared and looked those people in the eye on Friday night and looked Kurtley Beale in the eye on Friday night and told her version of the truth.”

Wilson and Jones both said they knew who sent the second text, which they said was far worse than the one sent by Beale and was fabricated to damage him.

Wilson said if the people running Australian rugby had integrity, they would get to the bottom of it, but that it might prove too dangerous.

“I believe the ARU know who the author of the text is [but] I think they are desperately frightened of further litigation and civil proceedings,” she said.

“There is absolutely no way that this matter can rest until people have decided that honesty must win out in the end.”

Both sides agree on one thing: this is Australian rugby’s darkest hour.

It is just that they lay the blame in opposite camps, as shown by the following quotes from these parallel universes.

Wayne Smith: “Australian rugby, this is your greatest day of shame. And to think that the player who caused it all is gloating that he has been vindicated.”

Rebecca Wilson: “This is Australian rugby. It is meant to be full of people of integrity. Where is their integrity? Instead, they have decided to be attack dogs on Kurtley Beale.”

– with AAP

Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 and Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467.