Ex-NRL star Jarryd Hayne wins appeal over sexual assault convictions

Fallen football star Jarryd Hayne has had his rape conviction overturned – with prosecutors to decide whether to bring him to trial for a fourth time. 

The 36-year-old has spent the last year behind bars after a jury last April convicted him of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent on the night of the 2018 NRL Grand Final at a woman’s home in Newcastle, NSW. 

The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal quashed Hayne’s convictions on Wednesday on the basis a judge erred in not allowing the complainant to be further cross-examined during the trial. 

The appeal court also ruled the judge did not properly direct the jury about how to deal with allegations the complainant had lied. 

A third ground of appeal, arguing the now-quashed guilty verdicts were unsafe or unreasonable, was not upheld. 

The former Parramatta Eels fullback appeared in the court wearing a prison-issued green tracksuit and a weary expression as he waited to learn the outcome.

The Director of Public Prosecutions will consider whether to force Hayne to trial for a fourth time. 

Hayne’s lawyer indicated he would apply for bail on Wednesday afternoon. A previous guilty finding was previously overturned on appeal. 

Wednesday’s verdict was greeted with celebrations from Hayne’s supporters.

The one-time footballer’s close mate Daniel Son shared an Instagram image that said: ‘You f***en’ beauty’.  

Three separate criminal trials were told the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, changed her mind about having sex with Hayne on the night of the 2018 NRL Grand Final after realising he had a taxi waiting outside her house to take him from Newcastle to Sydney.

Hayne’s barrister, Tim Game SC, told an appeal hearing in April that the woman deleted messages between herself and Hayne that demonstrated she had initially shown a sexual interest in him.

Hayne’s defence team also argued the woman should have been cross-examined on why she allegedly told police: ‘If those message get out, I’m f***ed and he will get off.’ 

The third trial heard that the woman sent messages to a man in the hours before the incident with Hayne. 

In them, she said, ‘If we aren’t going to keep talking, I’m going to say yes to Jarryd’ coming over to her house.

They were only revealed when that man contacted Hayne’s lawyers.

The complainant messaged another woman on the same day she met Hayne, and said the footballer ‘went down on her’ but did not say it was non-consensual. 

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

‘I hope this was worth it for you,’ the message read.

‘The pain I have endured from all of this is unfathomable. I have never lied. I have never done anything to you and for you to write something to JH about me having him over does not excuse what happened.

‘I did not tell you because it was disgusting and confusing for me. If he gets out you can thank yourself. This has been the hardest most painful thing I’ve ever been through and you can thank yourself for helping a guilty person.’

Hayne’s lawyers sought to rely on the messages to suggest the victim ‘deliberately concealed her communications because… they did not support her version of what occurred and then (possibly) tried to influence in respect of her evidence’. 

Judge Graham Turnbull, who oversaw Hayne’s third trial, refused requests for the woman to be cross-examined on the statement, saying it carried ‘almost infinitesimal weight’.

Not allowing further cross-examination was one of the successful appeal grounds.

Hayne’s quashed conviction followed a hung jury in his first trial in 2020 and a previous appeal overturning the 2021 guilty verdict from his second trial.