Former Australian rugby league star Jarryd Hayne has received an attraction in opposition to his rape convictions and has been ordered to face trial for a fourth time in the identical case.
The 36-year-old was discovered responsible of sexual assault by a jury final 12 months and sentenced to spend at the least three years in jail.
He has persistently denied he attacked the lady – who can not legally be named – in her bed room, arguing the pair had consensual intercourse.
Mr Hayne was probably the most high-profile athletes in Australia’s Nationwide Rugby League (NRL) and briefly performed American soccer within the NFL.
His 26-year-old accuser advised the New South Wales (NSW) District Court docket the pair had chatted on social media for 2 weeks earlier than Mr Hayne stopped at her home in Newcastle – about two hours north of Sydney – after a bachelor occasion in September 2018.
She stated Mr Hayne compelled himself on her there, regardless of her saying “no” and “cease”, leaving her bleeding.
Mr Hayne’s attraction was heard in April by a panel of three judges from the state’s prime courtroom.
On Wednesday, two of the three dominated that the trial choose had erred in prohibiting cross-examination of the lady over sure textual content messages, which Mr Hayne’s authorized group argued had implied her consent.
When delivering the decision, Justice Stephen Rothman stated that had amounted to a miscarriage of justice, ordering Mr Hayne’s convictions to be quashed.
He was granted bail and will likely be launched from jail.
In an announcement, the prosecutors’ workplace stated it might contemplate the judgement and any resolution a couple of attainable retrial could be made in accordance with its pointers.
Final 12 months’s trial was the third time Mr Hayne has stood earlier than a jury over the identical allegations. His first trial led to a hung jury, and a responsible verdict within the second trial was overturned on attraction.
He has collectively spent virtually two years in jail because the authorized saga has unfolded, and his accuser has been compelled to provide proof and face prolonged cross-examination a number of occasions.
In her written causes, Justice Deborah Sweeney stated a fourth trial in her view “wouldn’t be within the pursuits of justice”
Justice Rothman agreed, saying a trial is “unlikely” to happen earlier than it the expiry of Mr Hayne’s non-parole interval – and he has already served most of it anyway.
A former captain of the Parramatta Eels, Mr Hayne twice received the Nationwide Rugby League’s (NRL) participant of the 12 months award and performed 11 Assessments for Australia.
On the peak of his profession in Australia, in 2015 he joined the NFL within the US with the San Francisco 49ers.
