Jarryd Hayne’s sexual assault accuser deleted many texts between herself and NRL star, court told

A woman who accused Jarryd Hayne of sexual assault deleted a large number of text messages from the former NRL star and others before turning her phone over to police, a jury has been told.

Mr Hayne’s retrial in the NSW District Court is drawing to a close, with a jury hearing seven days of evidence after the Dally M winner pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexual assault without consent.

He denies sexually assaulting the woman at her home on the outskirts of Newcastle in September 2018, the night of the NRL grand final, claiming they engaged in consensual sexual acts.

The former soccer star is accused of removing the woman’s pants before allegedly performing oral and digital sexual acts on her without her consent, causing cuts and considerable bleeding.

The officer in charge of investigating the alleged sexual assault took the witness stand on Wednesday, where he revealed that he was contacted by the NRL Integrity Unit.

During cross-examination of defense attorney Margaret Cunneen SC, Detective Inspector Eugene Stek of the NSW Sex Crimes Squad was asked about the messages that had been deleted from the alleged victim’s phone.

The court was told that the woman voluntarily surrendered her phone to investigators in November 2018.

However, Detective Inspector Stek said that several text messages of which he was not aware had turned up later.

“May I suggest that around 19 messages to or from Mr. Hayne had been deleted on his phone when he gave it to the police?” questioned Mrs. Cunneen.

Detective Inspector Stek said it depended on the date of the forensic examination of the phone.

He admitted that a “large number of messages” had been deleted before the police received the phone.

“Had I told you about it or not, sir?” asked Mrs. Cunneen.

Detective Inspector Stek replied: ‘no’.

The jury was told the missing messages were later discovered by police during a forensic analysis of his phone via ‘Cellbrite’, or through Mr Hayne’s legal team at his first trial.

Earlier, Mr Hayne sat in the witness box as the jury listened to the final recording of his earlier evidence, where he described the alleged victim as “full of shit”.

Hours of Mr. Hayne’s recorded evidence has been presented to the jury this week, with the final hour presented on Wednesday.

In his final questions from the then Crown prosecutor, Hayne was asked why he was “angry” after a woman texted him saying she was in physical pain.

“I know I’ve talked a lot about sex and stuff, but I didn’t want to do that after knowing the taxi was waiting for you,” the text read.

I thought at least you would have stayed. It hurts me a lot. I told my mom you got a nosebleed, but I’m sitting here in my room crying because I feel weird.

Mr. Hayne replied: ‘Go to the doctor tomorrow.’

The then Crown prosecutor proposed to Mr Hayne: “The reason you were furious is because you knew from the messages that she was going to ruin your career… you were furious that she was going to refer you to the police.”

“I was furious because she was full of shit,” the former NRL star replied.

He previously told the court: “I was furious at that stage because I could see that she was trying to make something up that wasn’t true, about her saying no and leaving immediately.”

Earlier in his statement, Hayne admitted that he knew the woman didn’t want to have sex with him.

He said he paid for a $550 taxi to take him from Newcastle to Sydney after a weekend of money, telling the woman she could ‘drop by the way’ to her house if she lived near the motorway.

The former Parramatta fullback told the court he knew the woman had been “exciting and sending flirty messages” in the weeks before, but when asked what she intended to do at his house, he said he was “not sure”.

“I was on the air…at best I would have sex with her, at worst I would introduce myself and that would be it,” Hayne told his then-attorney in the evidence.

Mr Hayne insists that he knew the woman was not consenting to sex, but rather tried to “please” her by performing other sexual acts.

“I knew she didn’t want to have sex, I thought I would just please her and that was it,” he said.

The Crown asked: ‘You went for one thing and one thing only and that was sex, right?’

“Potentially,” Hayne replied.

He previously denied he wanted sex “the faster the better” after leaving the taxi outside the woman’s house with the meter running.

The then Crown Prosecutor asked Mr Hayne: “It was sex you wanted, and you wanted it the sooner the better because the taxi was at the front and the meter ran continuously.”

Asked what he said to that, Mr Hayne replied: “I don’t agree with your opinion.”

The trial continues before Judge Graham Turnbull.