HAYNE’S TRIAL CONTINUES IN AUSTRALIAFULL
FORMER NRL star Jarryd Hayne has been accused of walking out on a buck’s party midway through the 2018 grand final to “fit in a stop” for sex on his way back to Sydney.
But the ex-Parramatta fullback told his sexual assault trial he wasn’t watching the game “that intently” and left the party at Fiji teammate Wes Naiqama’s Newcastle home to drive south to an event.
Hayne, 32, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of aggravated sexual intercourse without consent recklessly inflicting actual bodily harm.
He is accused of forcing himself on the woman, then 26, at a home in Newcastle on September 30, 2018, using his hands and mouth, causing gruesome injuries in the process.
Hayne claims the oral and digital sex was consensual, and the woman’s injuries were caused by a stray fingernail.
On day five of his trial at Newcastle District Court, Hayne said he suggested to “pop in” at the woman’s house and caught a cab there about 9pm on Sunday but was “a bit rattled” to be greeted at the door by her mother.
Because of that, he “wasn’t even thinking about” whether being directed into the woman’s bedroom indicated she wanted to have sex with him.
“I was still trying to understand why her mum answered the door,” he said.
Crown prosecutor Brian Costello challenged the footballer about why he would leave his friends with the game still going in order to see a woman he had “never met” before.
“A lot of players don’t actually like to watch the games … we’re in this for 10 months of the year. Sometimes it’s good not to watch the whole thing,” Hayne said on Monday.
“I was only interested in the result, not so much the game … I wasn’t watching it intently.”
Hayne told the court on Friday he remembered watching the end of the match at the woman’s house and being “excited for the boys” as the Roosters won the premiership.
The court has previously heard he was due at a sponsored event in Sydney at midnight and asked a taxi driver to stop at the woman’s Fletcher home so he could “pick up a bag” before the alleged assault.
Costello put to the former State of Origin star that making a detour for the woman’s home showed he was not in “such a rush” and asked if he left the party early to “fit in a stop and have sex with her”.
“I honestly don’t understand the question,” Hayne replied.
The main reason he left the buck’s was to “go to Sydney”, he said.
The woman suffered two lacerations to her genitalia when the rugby league star allegedly pulled off her pants and began the unwanted sex on her while a taxi driver he’d paid $550 to drive him to Sydney waited outside.
Earlier on Monday, Hayne told the court the woman “never said no” during the encounter, and that there was no chance he might have misread “mixed signals”.
He knew “she didn’t want to have sex” but wanted to “please her and that was it”, he said on Monday.
As they kissed on her bed the woman took off her pants and unclipped the leotard she was wearing, which buttoned up at the crutch, because he “didn’t know what it was”, Hayne told the court.
The court has heard their meeting came after days of flirty messages exchanged over social media that were “forward” and included pictures of the woman wearing lingerie. Under cross-examination, the former NSW player said the messages were “promising signs” but agreed that while he was on the way to her house the woman’s consent to sex was still “up in the air”.
Costello asked if the fact she declined both times might mean she was “more reserved” in person than on social media.
“Nah, not really,” Hayne replied. “It was pretty late at night … it was last minute (on the Saturday), so I didn’t really expect her to drop everything and come out.
“I think it was where I was, I was at a buck’s party so …”
Costello also pressed the former fullback on a “good luck” Instagram message he claimed to have sent the woman in 2014 – four years before the alleged assault – when she was in a modelling contest.
The defence had not provided a copy of the message to the court, and the woman testified in her evidence she had never seen it.
He claimed the message had since been automatically deleted by Instagram. However, after a break in his evidence, Hayne would later backflip on this saying he had was mistaken and had gone “back through my phone” to find a message sent to him by his alleged victim in 2017.
Costello put to the footballer that he had “made up” those claims, which Hayne denied.
The trial continues.