How deleted Facebook messages from woman fallen NRL star Jarryd Hayne was found guilty of raping could be key to a successful appeal

Disgraced NRL star Jarryd Hayne hopes Facebook messages from a woman he was found guilty of raping could be the key to freeing him from jail and overturning his conviction.

The two-time Dally M winner was found guilty of sexually assaulting the woman at her home in Newcastle in the NSW Hunter Region following the high-profile District Court trial last year.

Hayne, 36, has continued to maintain his innocence and quickly appealed his conviction. It was the third time Hayne was tried for the same incident and the second time he was found guilty.

The former Parramatta Eels fullback claims the sexual encounter was completely consensual, but the jury accepted the woman’s version of events that she repeatedly said ‘no’ and ‘stop’ and was left bleeding after he removed her trousers.

Now his lawyers hope messages deleted from the same woman’s phone could be the key to the former star’s acquittal.

The two-time Dally M winner was found guilty of sexually assaulting the woman at her home in Newcastle in the NSW Hunter Region in 2018

Tim Game SC, who represented Hayne, told the state’s highest court, the Court of Criminal Appeal, on Wednesday that his client should be acquitted rather than face a fourth trial.

He told the court the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had hidden text and social media messages showing her consent.

The messages relate to a Snapchat conversation she had with a friend, whom she had never met in person.

The complainant messaged the friend both before and after meeting Hayne, telling her about the sexual encounter but not saying it was non-consensual.

Game argued that concealment is “the same as lying or deception,” and said the woman concealed evidence on a “large scale.”

He said the court’s cover-up was “front and center” of the defense case, but a miscarriage of justice occurred when District Court Judge Graham Turnbull SC ruled the defense could not cross-examine the witness on her deleted or secret messages with a man and woman before and after the incident.

In documents tendered to the court, Hayne’s lawyers argued that they tried to rely on the messages to suggest that she “intentionally concealed her communications with (the person) from the police and the prosecutor because she understood… they supported her version of what happened and then (possibly) attempted to influence her evidence.”

The court was told the woman listened to Hayne’s previous appeal in 2021 and contacted the social media friend on Facebook the same day.

Hayne, 36, has always maintained his innocence and insisted the sexual encounter was consensual (pictured, with wife Amellia Bonnici)

“I hope this was worth it for you,” the message read.

“The pain I have endured through all of this is unfathomable. I never lied. I never did anything to you and you writing something to JH that I have him here does not excuse what happened.

“I didn’t tell you because it was disgusting and confusing to me. When he gets out, you can thank yourself.

‘This is the hardest and most painful thing I have ever experienced and you can thank yourself for helping someone guilty.’

Hayne’s lawyers claim the messages were relevant to the complainant’s credibility, showing she contacted a witness in a ‘hostile manner’.

They argued that the woman ‘possibly’ intended to influence the witness report.

“It also underlines, and more importantly, the prosecutor’s attitude to (the woman’s) evidence, that it did not support her story and that she was angry that the evidence had come to light,” court papers said. documents.

Mr Game said the concealment showed she wanted to get rid of evidence that was “hurtful” but also because it showed she “actually consented”.

He told the court: ‘It is evidence of dishonesty, it also affects her credibility in a general sense.’

Hayne’s brilliant 2009 season saw him guide Parramatta to the NRL Grand Final and also win the Dally M Medal (pictured)

But prosecutor Georgina Wright SC told the court the complainant did not tell the woman about the attack because they did not know each other well.

“She had never spoken to her or met her and said she didn’t know her well at all,” Ms Wright said.

Ms Wright told the court the complainant told close friends and family about the assault in the hours after the incident.

But she argued that the Facebook message to the social media friend was “consistent with an expression of frustration with the legal process”, and denied claims that the complainant concealed messages from police.

Hayne’s appeal rests on three grounds: first, the sentences were unreasonable and not supported by evidence at trial, second, the judge had erred in ruling that the complainant did not have to provide evidence about a 2021 interaction with the man who messaged them the same day. the jury found that she had been sexually assaulted in 2018, and finally that the judge’s ruling resulted in a miscarriage of justice.

Hayne was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison on charges of digital and oral sexual assault, but he will be eligible for parole in May 2025 due to the time he has already served in custody.

The ruling on the appeal will follow at a later date.