Hayne hits rape claim

Woman claims assault took her virginity

NRL star Jarryd Hayne yesterday admitted he knew of the rape claims made by a 25-yearold “religious” restaurant worker and had co-operated with the Californian prosecutors who decided not to charge him last year.

The Parramatta Eels recruit, who returned from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem three days ago for the first birthday of his daughter Bel, “unequivocally and vehemently” denied the explosive allegations.

The claims were revealed in legal documents filed yesterday as part of a civil lawsuit in the Superior Court of California Santa Clara by lawyers for the woman, known as Ms V, who alleges Hayne took her virginity while he played for the San Francisco 49ers. The woman claims Hayne raped her at his apartment on December 21, 2015, after a drunken night at a bar but she did not go to police until May 2016 because she feared she would not be believed.

She reported the rape around the time Hayne announced on May 15 that he was quitting the 49ers, after a short stint, for what turned out to be an unsuccessful attempt to play for Fiji in rugby sevens in the Rio Olympics.

In October last year, the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office decided no charges would be laid. Yesterday the DA’s office declined to comment further.

“Mr Hayne unequivocally and vehemently denies the allegations which are the subject of the civil complaint,” Hayne’s Sydney lawyer Ramy Qutami of Madison Marcus Law Firm, said.

After the documents are served on him, which could be some weeks, Hayne will have to lodge a defence with the court. The woman has requested a jury trial.

One of the woman’s lawyers, Micha Star Liberty, said yesterday that her client still suffered “vaginal floor pain” from the alleged assault.

She said the woman had taken “very seriously her moral and religious commitment to maintaining her virginity and the ability to choose the partner to which she would lose her virginity”.