“In September,it’ll be five years ago since this happened,” the now 30-year-old said in her victim impact statement,tendered upon sentence. She has not found peace,or been able to move on.
Jarryd Hayne has been sentenced over the sexual assault of a woman in 2018.Brook Mitchell
Sentencing Hayne in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on Friday,Judge Graham Turnbull stressed his remarks and the penalty imposed should not obscure the fact “that there was a young woman here who was dealt with criminally by this offender”.
The woman was “not passive in the face of adversity” and had “endeavoured to stand up for herself”,Turnbull said.
NSW District Court Judge Graham Turnbull.Supplied
of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent relating to non-consensual oral sex and the digital penetration of the woman on the night of the NRL grand final in 2018.
The woman soldiered on through three trials – “giving evidence,giving evidence again” – Hayne’s successful appeal and his two sentence proceedings,Turnbull said. The former footballer’s lawyers have indicated another appeal is on the horizon.
“This complainant has been bedevilled by a feeling of being dirty that doesn’t go away,” the judge said. “She has had feelings blaming herself for allowing him to come into her home,for not being able to initially be open with family members. She didn’t feel safe at all in reporting it.”
But she should carry no blame,and feel in no way unclean,he said.
The woman said she had felt for Hayne’s children,and that “the thought of being part of taking[away] someone’s daddy made me feel sick”.
The judge stressed:“It was not her fault.”
The disgraced former NRL star Jarryd Hayne will be in jail for at least another two years for sexually assaulting a woman.
“Through the diligence of NSW police,the sex crimes squad,the DPP[Director of Public Prosecutions],and,quite frankly,through her own efforts,she has brought this offender to justice.”
Outside court,the officer in charge of the investigation,Detective Inspector Eugene Stek,said of the victim:“She’s certainly much braver than she believes,she’s certainly much stronger than she seems,and she’s certainly much smarter than she thinks.”
The judge said Hayne,knowing the woman was not consenting,“overwhelmed her in an inherently unequal contest and an indulgence of physical power to achieve some sexual gratification”.
“His preparedness to utilise,ultimately,the complainant as some kind of sexual object is a matter of significance in the manner in which he went about committing this offence,” Turnbull said.
He noted Hayne “maintains his innocence”,and,as a result,“expresses no contrition or remorse”.
The judge imposed a non-parole period of three years,backdated to May 2022 to account for time already spent in custody and under onerous conditions on remand.
“Say no more,” Hayne said,appearing via video link with a shaved beard and in a prison green T-shirt. The video link feed was then cut to the court,but Hayne was heard by those observing proceedings online to say,“F---ing three years,bro,f---.”
The trial heard Hayne and the woman had been talking for almost two weeks on platforms including Instagram and Snapchat,exchanging “flirty” messages and photos,before he arrived at her home in Fletcher at 9.07pm on September 30,2018.
Leaving a $550 taxi waiting outside and a half-drunk Vodka Cruiser on the mailbox,Hayne told the driver he needed to collect a bag. Inside the woman’s bedroom,Hayne played his “go-to” songs on a laptop,including an Ed Sheeran cover of Oasis’Wonderwall.
The Crown case was that the when she became aware of the waiting taxi,after a beep of its horn or a knock at the door.
The judge said the complainant had been “open to something sexual happening if it happened in the right way”,but her “heart dropped” and she felt Hayne was there for “one thing”,telling her mother,“there’s no way I’m about to have sex with him”.
:“I knew she didn’t want to have sex;I thought I’d just please her and that was it.” But,on Hayne’s own account,he placed her hand on his crotch.
The judge said the jury must have rejected Hayne’s account as true or possibly true,and must have accepted the complainant’s account.
In her evidence,the woman said Hayne grabbed her pants and “pulled them off in one go”,was rough and forceful and performed the acts over about 30 seconds despite her saying “no” and “stop”,.
“The offending only stopped when the bleeding commenced,” Turnbull said. “He did not relent voluntarily.”
Hayne left the home at 9.53pm. In response to the woman’s texts that she was “hurting” and “didn’t want to do that”,he said,“go doctor tomorrow”.
Hayne’s first trial ended in a hung jury and the convictions reached by a second jury in 2021 were quashed on appeal. He was released from Cooma Correctional Centre in February 2022 and faced a third trial in Sydney.
His bail was revoked in the Supreme Court 10 days after the guilty verdicts,and he has since been held on remand in Silverwater prison,isolated from other inmates.
The judge expects Hayne to receive his prisoner classification within days and be returned to Cooma jail,where high-profile inmates are housed.
Turnbull said he considered Hayne to be “well on the way to rehabilitation”,noting his commitment to his Christian faith,devotion to his family and change of attitude towards alcohol,and found him a low risk of reoffending.
Hayne will be eligible for release in May 2025. His maximum term expires in February 2027.
Our Breaking News Alertwillnotify you of significant breaking news when it happens..