FROM NRL STAR TO JAIL
JARRYD Hayne declared in court “I didn’t do it” just hours before he was jailed on Thursday for raping a woman in her Newcastle home.
Judge Helen Syme sentenced Hayne at Newcastle District Court to at least three years and eight months behind bars.
Hayne, 33, was in court for a sentence hearing after he was found guilty by a jury in March of the sexual assault of the then 26-year-old woman at her Fletcher home on Newcastle’s outskirts in September 2018.
He was sentenced to five years and nine months’ jail with a non-parole period of three years and eight months.
He will be eligible for release in January 2025.
Hayne took the stand on Thursday where he continued to deny that he performed oral and digital sex on the woman without her consent.
Hayne’s barrister, Richard Pontello SC, argued that Hayne had already suffered punishment after losing his job as an NRL player.
At the time, the Parramatta Eels had refused to renew his contract.
Hayne said he had agreed to a $500,000, one-year contract with St George Illawarra but the deal fell through when he was charged in November, 2018.
He told the court he was set to meet with Dragons officials on the day he was charged and was expecting to sign the contract that day.
Crown prosecutor Brian Costello objected, asking Hayne what he expected the consequences to be if he was convicted of sexual assault.
“I didn’t do it,” Hayne told the court.
“What did you think would happen if you went out and committed an offence of sexual intercourse without consent in relation to your career?” Mr Costello asked.
“I didn’t think about doing something without consent,” Hayne said.
Hayne continued to deny that he at any point contemplated what would have happened to his contract had he been charged with sexual assault.
“What the law says is innocent until proven guilty – I was never afforded that,” Hayne said.
However, Mr Costello raised the fact that in August 2019, Hayne reached a settlement in a civil suit with a young American woman who had accused him of sexually assaulting her while he was playing for the San Francisco 49ers.
He was never charged with that offence.
Mr Costello said Hayne’s evidence was “inconsistent” with his own experiences with that case.
Judge Syme added: “He’s obviously lost his employment because he’s going to prison.”
Hayne was facing a maximum sentence of 14 years in jail.
Hayne has previously said he intends to appeal the guilty verdict.