Former NRL star’s rape convictions overturned

Former NRL star Jarryd Hayne’s rape convictions have been overturned following a successful appeal.

The 36-year-old spent a year behind bars in Australia after a jury found the league player guilty of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent in April 2023, after an earlier guilty verdict was overturned in a separate appeal.

The New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal on Wednesday overturned Haynes’ convictions on the grounds that a judge had erred in not allowing further cross-examination of the plaintiff during the trial.

The appeals court also ruled that the trial judge did not properly instruct the jury on how to deal with allegations that the plaintiff had lied.

A third ground of appeal, arguing that the now-overturned convictions were unsafe or inappropriate, was not upheld.

A new trial has been ordered, which would be Haynes’ fourth. However, it will be up to the prosecution to decide whether he will face another trial.

A court will decide on bail for Hayne, who played for the Parramatta Eels, on Wednesday afternoon.

Hayne was accused of raping a woman in her home on the night of the 2018 NRL Grand Final.

Three separate criminal trials have heard that the woman, whose identity cannot be verified for legal reasons, changed her mind about having sex with Hayne after she realized there was a taxi waiting outside her house.

Hayne’s South Carolina attorney Tim Game said at an appeal hearing in April that the woman deleted messages between her and Hayne that indicated she had initially shown sexual interest in him.

The ex-player’s defense team also argued that the woman should have been cross-examined to find out why she allegedly told police: “If this news gets out, I’m screwed and he’ll get away with it.”

Judge Graham Turnbull, who presided over Haynes’ third trial, rejected requests to cross-examine the woman on the statement, saying it had “almost negligible weight”.

One of the successful grounds of appeal was the non-admission of further cross-examination.

Haynes’ overturned conviction followed a hung jury in his first trial in 2020 and a previous appeal that overturned the guilty verdict from his second trial in 2021.