Hayne snaps after ‘repeat’ question
FORMER National Rugby League superstar Jarryd Hayne is on trial at Newcastle District Court in Australia fighting allegations that he forced himself on a woman, then 26, after arranging to go to her house on the night of the 2018 NRL grand final.
The court has heard that the woman suffered two lacerations to her genitalia when Hayne, 32, allegedly pulled off her pants and began digital and oral sex on her as a taxi waited outside her Fletcher home.
Hayne claims the sex was consensual and the woman’s injuries were caused by a stray fingernail.
During a fiery cross-examination from Crown Prosecutor Brian Costello on Tuesday, Hayne said he felt like he was “on repeat” having to answer the same question about what force he used.
The court was played for the second time intercepted phone calls from 2018 in which Hayne told Newcastle captain Mitchell Pearce the woman was a “full blown weirdo”.
Costello asked Hayne if he felt that way because the accusation could impact on his career.
The court also heard that a $50 note was seen on the bed when the complainant returned from a shower to wash blood off herself after suffering the injury.
Hayne asked “is that yours?” before pocketing the note when she said no, the court heard.
Costello questioned whether the $50 note was an attempt to “bribe her silence” or make her “feel better”. Hayne refuted this and said it must have fallen out of his pocket while he was lying on the bed. The court has previously heard that when he arrived, he asked if she wanted to have a “singalong” before using her laptop to play “two or three” songs including an Ed Sheeran cover of the Oasis classic ‘Wonderwall’.
On Tuesday he was read part of the lyrics to the song and asked if it was an attempt to “seduce” the woman. Hayne said it was merely one of his “go-to” songs he used to “break the ice” in an awkward situation.
The prosecutor then made the blunt accusation that the star athlete had “made up lies as part of your evidence to explain away bits of your evidence”.
“I don’t understand what you think I’m lying about,” Hayne replied.
The trial continues.