Why Hayne claims he is innocent, appeal starts last month
SYDNEY - Fallen NRL superstar Jarryd Hayne has argued that his sexual assault conviction ought to be quashed because a jury erred in believing his victim said “no, no, no”, a court has heard.
On November, Hayne appeared via videolink from Cooma Correctional Centre as he fights to be released from prison.
The 33-year-old was earlier this year jailed after a District Court jury found him guilty of two counts of sexual assault.
He was imprisoned for a maximum of five years and nine months, with a three-year, eight-month non-parole period, after the jury convicted him of the sexual assault of a then 26-year-old woman inside her Newcastle home in September, 2018.
He immediately launched proceedings in the Court of Criminal Appeal.
Hayne appeared before Chief Justice Tom Bathurst and Justices Ian Harrison and Helen Wilson. The woman watched proceedings via videolink as the crown prosecution fought Hayne’s bid to be freed.
His first trial in Newcastle last year ended in a hung jury, but he was found guilty following a second trial in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court earlier this year.
Hayne pleaded not guilty at trial and has consistently professed his innocence, even after being convicted. He claimed that he engaged in consensual sexual acts with the woman, that her injuries were accidental and that he had apologised.
However, the jury accepted the woman’s version of events that she said “no” and “no Jarryd” and that she did not consent to the former Dally M winner performing oral and digital sex on her in the bedroom of her Fletcher home on NRL grand final night on September 30, 2018. Barrister Tim Game said Hayne was appealing on several grounds including that there was evidence which contradicted the woman’s claim that she repeatedly said “no”.
She had claimed that Hayne had pulled off her pants before assaulting her, while on his version of events, she helped pull down her jeans. Game pointed to texts sent between the woman, who cannot be named, and a friend shortly after the assault.
In them, she referred to him “getting his hand down there and taking my pants off” and “I was sort of scared and unsure if I wanted to”.
“We say putting his hands down there is quite different to the account she gave that in a single movement he ripped her pants off,” Game said.
“She also says ‘I wanted to, but I didn’t’. It’s difficult to see how that fits with ‘no, no, no’.”
She was left with two lacerations on her private part. Hayne was in Newcastle for a two-day buck’s party for a former teammate and had stopped off at the woman’s house on the way back to Sydney to attend a sponsors’ function.
The two had exchanged sexuallyexplicit messages via social media prior to Hayne coming to her house.
However, she said she refused to any sexual acts when she noticed that he had a taxi waiting outside to take him back to Sydney.
Game also referenced Snapchat messages in which the woman said: “I don’t remember what I said, but you knew I definitely wasn’t OK from the damage that night and you just left me that way.
It was pretty messed up and you should have just stopped when I said so.”
The messages, which were tendered to the court, revealed that Hayne then became angry.
“Wtf are you on about!!!,” he said, maintaining they had engaged in consensual sex.
“I stopped straight away n made sure your were OK. We spoke for a while after n made sure you were OK be4 I left.
“Your starting to sound suss.”
Game said his client’s reply suggested that he believed she was consenting.
The hearing continues.