Why you are banned from seeing new photos of Jarryd Hayne’s wife

EXCLUSIVE 

Jarryd Hayne‘s wife is the subject of an extraordinary court order which prevents publication of any pictures taken of her since the NRL star was jailed for rape.

The order stops all media outlets from running photographs of Amellia Bonnici or her children which were shot anytime from May 12 last year and has no expiry date.

Judge Graham Turnbull made the suppression order the day he sentenced Hayne to a minimum three years’ jail after his third NSW District Court trial.

The order did not include an explanation for why it was made but Judge Turnbull had heard evidence of Ms Bonnici having particular ‘health conditions’ and her children being previously photographed by media. 

Hayne had been found guilty of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent with a 26-year-old woman in Newcastle in September 2018.

Those convictions were overturned by the Court of Criminal Appeal on Wednesday and Hayne was granted bail but the ban on photographing Ms Bonnici or any of her three children remains.

Lawyers were baffled by the extent of the suppression order, which in its current form would prevent publication of images taken with Ms Bonnici’s permission.

‘I think such a broad order without limitation is both extraordinary and unprecedented,’ one media law expert told Daily Mail Australia. 

While the former NRL star has been reunited with his wife and children he awaits a decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions on whether he will face another trial. 

The DPP will consider whether a further prosecution is in the public interest as well as factors including the time the 36-year-old has already spent in custody and whether the prospects of conviction are reasonable.

One of the three judges who heard Hayne’s appeal, Justice Deborah Sweeney, was against putting the case before another jury.

‘I am of the view that in the circumstances of the history of this matter, to put the applicant on trial for a fourth time would not be in the interests of justice,’ Justice Sweeney wrote in her judgment. 

The Court of Criminal Appeal found Judge Turnbull had erred in not allowing the rape complainant to be further cross-examined during the third trial.

It also ruled the judge had 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.

Justice Stephen Rothman said in his portion of the judgement it was unlikely a fourth trial would go ahead before Hayne’s non-parole period ended in May next year. 

‘There is good reason for there not to be a fourth trial, but, in my view, given that the ground of unreasonable verdict was not upheld, the discretion not to undertake a fourth trial is one to be exercised by the Crown,’ he wrote.

Ms Bonnici was not in court the day her husband was sentenced to a maximum term of four years and nine months but was present when his bail was revoked four weeks earlier.

She had sobbed and hugged Hayne for several minutes before he was led away, telling the onetime Parramatta Eels fullback she loved him. 

Hayne and Ms Bonnici reportedly met over Instagram in early 2016 when he was playing for the Gold Coast Titans.

A few weeks later Ms Bonnici was pregnant with the couple’s first child, daughter Beliviah Ivy.

Hayne had only recently returned from a stint in the United States playing NRL with the San Francisco 49ers and signed a $1million-a-year deal with the Titans.

The couple became engaged in late 2020 and married in front of 50 family and friends including old NRL teammates on Australia Day the next year.

Hayne, who was once a poster boy for the Hillsong Church, announced his union to Ms Bonnici by posting on Instagram a verse from the bible.

‘He who finds a wife finds a good thing, And obtains favour from the LORD. Proverbs 18:22 NKJV,’ he wrote.

‘It’s been a rollercoaster. But I’m thankful for God and what the Holy Spirit has done through us. It’s only by the grace of God we are here and were excited moving forward as Husband n Wife.’

At the time, Hayne was on bail after his first trial over the rape allegations had ended in a hung jury. 

Since then the NSW and Australian representative has faced two more trials which resulted in Hayne spending time in prison before the convictions were overturned on appeal. 

Ms Bonnici has continued to stand by her husband during his two stints in custody – the first for nine months and the second for almost a year. 

Two days after Hayne was convicted a second time in April last year Ms Bonnici gave evidence about why he should be allowed to remain on bail. 

Click here to resize this module

Ms Bonnici said she had been bombarded with offensive messages on her personal Facebook page and hundreds of threatening posts about Hayne had been made on Twitter.

She became emotional when asked if she and Hayne had three children. ‘Yes we do,’ Ms Bonnici said, sobbing.

Ms Bonnici told the court she had a strong relationship with Hayne’s mother Jodie but her husband’s family had not been around to help with the practicalities of looking after the children.

When asked for the reasons why Hayne should not be jailed, Ms Bonnici said: ‘I can’t even put that into words.’

Judge Turnbull had asked Ms Bonnici if her children – then aged six, three and one – had been photographed by media without her consent and she said they had.

Asked if the children were aware of being photographed, Ms Bonnici said the eldest  had been ‘beside herself this morning’.

Judge Turnbull had allowed Hayne to remain at liberty but his bail was revoked before sentencing.