Former NRL star Jarryd Hayne wins appeal over sexual assault convictions
Fallen football star Jarryd Hayne has had his conviction for raping a woman in her Newcastle home on the night of the 2018 NRL Grand Final overturned.
The 36-year-old has spent the past year behind bars after a jury convicted him of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent in April 2023 after an earlier guilty finding was overturned on appeal.
The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal quashed Hayne’s convictions on Wednesday, saying a judge erred in not allowing the complainant to be questioned further at trial.
The appeals court also found that the judge had not properly informed the jury about how to deal with allegations that the complainant had lied.
Disgraced NRL star Jarryd Hayne has successfully overturned his conviction for raping a woman in her Newcastle home.
A third ground of appeal, which argued that the now quashed guilty verdicts were unsafe or unreasonable, was not accepted.
A new trial has been ordered, which would be Hayne’s fourth, but whether he faces another trial will be a matter for prosecutors.
A court will consider bail for Hayne on Wednesday afternoon.
Hayne was accused of raping a woman in her home on the night of the 2018 NRL Grand Final.
Three separate criminal trials were told that the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, changed her mind about having sex with Hayne after realizing a taxi was waiting outside her house.
Hayne’s barrister, Tim Game SC, told a hearing in April that the woman had deleted messages between herself and Hayne which showed she had initially shown sexual interest in him.
The ex-player’s defense team also argued that the woman should have been cross-examined as to why she allegedly told police: “If that message gets out, I’m fucked and he’ll go away.”
Judge Graham Turnbull, who oversaw Hayne’s third trial, refused requests to have the woman cross-examined on the statement, saying it had “almost infinite weight”.
Disallowing further cross-examination was one of the successful grounds of appeal.
Hayne’s overturned conviction followed a hung jury in his first trial in 2020 and an earlier appeal that overturned the 2021 guilty verdict from his second trial.
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