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Date set for Jarryd Hayne’s appeal over sexual assault convictions

Author
news.com.au,
Publish Date
Thu, 24 Jun 2021, 3:38PM
Jarryd Hayne. Photo / News Corp Australia
Jarryd Hayne. Photo / News Corp Australia

Date set for Jarryd Hayne’s appeal over sexual assault convictions

Author
news.com.au,
Publish Date
Thu, 24 Jun 2021, 3:38PM

text by Steve Zemek

Convicted sex offender and former NRL star Jarryd Hayne has launched an appeal against his sexual assault convictions, for which he continues to maintain his innocence.

The 33-year-old was last month jailed for five years and nine months by District Court Judge Helen Syme after a jury found him guilty of two charges of sexual assault against a woman inside her Newcastle home in September 2018.

Hayne’s lawyer Penny Musgrave told the Supreme Court on Thursday morning Hayne would appeal against his conviction.

The matter has been set down for a three-hour hearing in the Court of Appeal on November 29.

Hayne will watch the proceedings from Cooma Correctional Centre via an audio-visual link, the court heard.

After a jury in March found him guilty, Hayne flagged his intention to appeal his conviction.

“I‘ll definitely appeal,” he said shortly after the jury handed down its decision.

He added: “I’d rather go to jail knowing I spoke the truth than be a free man living a lie.”

During his sentencing at the Newcastle District Court in May, Hayne continued to claim he was innocent and that he engaged in consensual sexual acts with the woman.

“I didn’t do it,” he told Judge Syme.

A female supporter in the public gallery yelled “you’re innocent” as he was sentenced.

Hayne’s first trial in Newcastle last year ended in a hung jury but he was found guilty following a second trial in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court earlier this year.

He had pleaded not guilty but the jury accepted the evidence of the then 26-year-old woman who said that she did not consent to Hayne performing oral and digital sex on her in her bedroom on NRL grand final night.

She was left with two lacerations on her vagina which bled profusely.

Hayne insisted that her injuries were an accident and apologised.

During her evidence, the woman said she refused to consent to sex because the ex-Parramatta fullback — who was in Newcastle for a two-day buck’s party — had a taxi waiting outside.

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