Jarryd Hayne seen leaving house and arriving at court as he learns if he will go into custody

Jarryd Hayne’s lawyer has asked for the disgraced NRL star to be given a further 25 days of freedom rather than being taken into custody today.

Defense attorney Margaret Cunneen SC told the NSW High Court that her client endured more than three weeks of segregation and isolation in prison and should be remanded on Friday.

Hayne, 35, was in court on Friday in an effort to fight prosecutors’ attempts to throw him behind bars ahead of his May 8 sentencing.

“He poses no danger to anyone,” Ms Cunneen said, citing “the extraordinary media coverage and a toxic and terrifying social media campaign” portraying Hayne as “a sex offender of the most debased, the worst kind” .

The disgraced NRL star held his wife Amellia Bonnici by the hand as the pair pushed through the throng of media waiting outside the NSW Supreme Court on Friday

Last Thursday, NSW District Court Judge Graham Turnbull SC allowed Hayne to remain free on bail to help his family sort through his impending prison sentence.

The director of the Public Prosecution Service this week asked a higher court to reverse the ruling and put him behind bars.

If the prosecutors are successful, Hayne will be handcuffed in court, taken to the holding cells, and then taken by van to Silverwater or Parklea Maximum correctional center.

Ms Cunneen described the 25 days Hayne would spend in protective custody if she went to jail today as “oppressive”.

She said the case had been going on for a long time, “three lawsuits and four and a half years.”

As she pleaded for her client’s continued freedom, Hayne sat in the dock of the court, his face unmoved.

He bowed his head when prosecutors pleaded for incarceration, saying there were “no special or exceptional circumstances relating to this perpetrator” that would spare him immediate jail time.

Hayne was seen visibly tense outside his home in Merrylands holding his wife Amellia Bonnici’s hand as the couple arrived at court this morning.

He hid his eyes behind large black sunglasses and wore a tie, suit jacket and fawn pants.

Hayne briefly put his arm around the shoulder of his solicitor, Ms. Cunneen, after he walked into the courtroom.

Judge Button said he was not requiring anyone to testify in court, including Ms. Bonnici, and that he would accept an affidavit she had previously sworn.

Mrs. Cunneen argued that Hayne’s case was one of special or exceptional circumstances, to which His Honor replied that those circumstances must justify his continuation on bail.

Justice Button said that “violence against people in prison (is not acceptable), but the reality is that many people in custody must be placed within restricted areas to protect them.”

“There is a great public interest in the criminal justice system, particularly in sex crimes,” he said.

Ms Cunneen said it would make a big difference if Ms Bonnici and the children could be housed in a rural center four hours outside of Sydney for the next three or four weeks, ‘with the protection of her husband’.

Hayne was seen leaving his house and making his way to his car before arriving at the NSW High Court on Friday

The NRL star was accompanied by his wife as he stepped out the front door of his home

Hayne opened the car door for his wife as she stepped inside before the couple went to court

After Ms Cunneen argued that immediate incarceration would ‘very jeopardize his preparation for custody’, Judge Button agreed that ‘for anyone being held in very strict custody this could make it difficult’.

‘But really,’ the judge asked, ‘is this something special, exceptional, just?

“Mr. Hayne has been proven to be a man who sexually assaulted a woman.”

The court has previously heard there was “no doubt” Hayne will be sentenced to prison after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in 2018.

Hayne was convicted for the second time by a jury earlier this month.

After his first conviction, he spent nine months in prison before his previous conviction was overturned on appeal last year.

He is again expected to appeal his latest conviction to the Court of Appeal and continue to maintain his innocence.

Hayne briefly put his arm around the shoulder of his lawyer, Margaret Cunneen SC, after walking into court on Friday