Former rugby league player Jarryd Hayne. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Former rugby league player Jarryd Hayne. Photo / Jason Oxenham
The best friend of a woman who alleges she was sexually assaulted by Jarryd Hayne asked the alleged victim for photos of her injuries to assess the “damage” and told her “that’s rape”, a court has heard.
Hayne, 35, pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexual intercourse without consent after being accused of non-consensual oral and digital sex on the NRL Grant Final night in 2018.
In his opening arguments to the jury on Monday, Crown prosecutor John Sfinas alleged Hayne assaulted the woman on September 30, 2018, with a taxi waiting outside.
On the fifth day of the trial on Friday, the alleged victim’s best friend of 10 years was asked by Sfinas about the night of the alleged assault.
The court heard the alleged victim’s friend was preparing for her child’s first birthday party the next day when she received a message at 10.15pm from the alleged victim explaining her version of events from Hayne’s visit.
Jarryd Hayne leaves the Burwood Local Court on December 10, 2018 in Sydney. Photo / Getty Images
Sfinas asked why she had texted her friend to say: “if you kept saying no, that’s rape” and the friend responded: “Well, from what she said to me, it didn’t sound like it was consensual.”
The court heard she sent her friend a text along the lines of: “he ripped you by being rough down there” and Sfinas asked: “so you were aware she’d sustained injury?”
The court heard the friend texted remarks about the cuts, which she told Sfinas was because she was “concerned about what had happened”.
“I asked to see what the damage was I guess to make sure she was okay”.
The woman told the court she went to the doctor a few days later with the alleged victim.
Earlier in the trial, Sfinas told the court Hayne paid a taxi driver $550 to take him from Newcastle, where he had spent the weekend at a bucks’ party, back to Sydney – stopping off at the woman’s home in Fletcher in Newcastle’s outer suburbs.
He told the court the pair went into her bedroom, and shortly after came a “defining moment” where the alleged victim heard the taxi beeping outside and realised he was “only there for one thing - sex”.
Sfinas told the court in this moment she decided she did not want to have any sexual activity with him.
But he told the court Hayne allegedly pulled her jeans off and was “quite rough and forceful” despite the alleged victim saying “no and stop”.
He alleged he cleaned “up blood from his hands and mouth” and left.
The Crown alleged the woman then felt stinging and swelling when she went into the shower to clean herself up.
The court heard she texted Hayne hours later to say she was hurting, and he eventually responded: “go doctor tomorrow”.
A jury was empanelled at the NSW District Court on Monday, after Hayne said “not guilty, Your Honour” to two charges of sexual intercourse without consent.
Earlier, in his brief opening remarks to the wider jury panel, Sfinas said the complainant and Hayne had “never actually met” before the night in question.
He told the court the complainant reached out to Hayne on Instagram and for the next two weeks, the pair spoke on the platform, as well as Snapchat, before finally meeting on September 30.
But defence barrister Margaret Cunneen SC told the court the sexual acts were consensual.
“For her own reasons she has lied, or exaggerated, or changed her mind about what really happened,” Cunneen told the court.
“Even if she didn’t want to have sex, she was still completely open to him kissing and fondling her… while his pants remained on... He did not do anything he thought was wrong.”
Hayne made his NRL debut in 2006 and played 214 games between Parramatta and the Gold Coast.
