Nearly five years after the alleged sexual assault, the victim of Jarryd Hayne claims she is still experiencing nightmares. Hayne is currently serving a prison sentence.
Following a third trial in April, the 35-year-old disgraced former NRL star was found guilty of two counts of having sex without consent and will be sentenced on Friday.
As attorneys presented their arguments ahead of the judge’s decision on Monday, the crown prosecutor John Sfinas delivered a victim impact statement from the unnamed woman.
In the nearly five years following the assault, she claims her life has been “launched into what feels like a never-ending nightmare” and that she has been unable to move on from it or find any feeling of peace about it.
She said in her statement, “I am stronger and wiser, but I am scarred, and I won’t ever be the same person.
Due to space constraints, Hayne appeared in front of a crowded courtroom while seated in the dock across from supporters who were requested to take seats in the jury box.
On the eve of the 2018 NRL championship game, Hayne spent nearly an hour in the woman’s home but only physically abused her for 30 seconds using his hands and lips, according to his attorney Margaret Cunneen SC.
The nature of the sexual assaults is relevant in the context and it is a subject that is less serious, according to Cunneen.
After a third trial, she claimed that the judge who punished Hayne the first time he was found guilty for the same offence was “not as fully apprised” of the facts as NSW District Court Judge Graham Turnbull.
Turnbull declared that his choice will not be based on the earlier judgement.
He said that it was doubtful that he would discover any factors that would mitigate or aggravate Hayne’s offence.
The judge observed that “there are frequently very significant aggravating features.”
The Crown has conceded that the judge might lighten Hayne’s sentence in light of the extra-judicial punishment and public backlash experienced during the high-profile footballer’s rape allegations hearings.
Cunneen informed the court that because of the ongoing coverage, Hayne’s wife had chosen not to attend the hearing. “The media has been extremely negative about this,” she added.
In April, as the NSW Supreme Court sentenced Hayne to custody, she held his hand as photographers filmed him entering court for the final time.
Ten days after being found guilty of two “extremely grave sexual offences,” Justice Richard Button noted that he was “remarkably” still out on bail.
Hayne waited outside the victim’s suburban Newcastle home with a cab he had booked $550 to take him to Sydney after a gambling weekend while he played her music on a laptop and watched the grand final with her mother seated in the living room.
According to testimony given at Hayne’s trial, after the attack, the two cleansed their hands in her bathroom before Hayne headed to Sydney.
Prior to an earlier guilty decision being overturned on appeal and necessitating a new trial, Hayne had previously served more than nine months in custody.
The third trial for Hayne’s November 2018 charges began in March.
In the first trial, the jury was expelled for failing to render a decision.
Hayne’s sentence will be retroactively applied to begin on July 2, 2022 to reflect his prior incarceration.
He played the majority of his 214 NRL games for the Parramatta Eels and also represented Australia and Fiji. He was chosen for 23 State of Origin games, including NSW’s series victory in 2014, the year he won his second Dally M medal, which ended a long drought for the state.
