WARNING: Graphic content
A confused, violated woman opened her phone at 11pm on a Sunday night, hours after ex-NRL star Jarryd Hayne had raped her and left in a taxi that was waiting outside.
Trying to piece together the trauma she had just endured, she texted her best friend of 10 years:
“Something just happened and I don’t know what it was”.
The full contents of that raw conversation can now be revealed in texts released by the NSW District Court following Hayne’s verdict on Tuesday.
After more than a week of deliberating, a jury found the 35-year-old guilty of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent relating to 2018’s NRL Grand Final night.
Crown prosecutor John Sfinas had argued he sexually assaulted her digitally and orally when he stopped by her house on the outskirts of Newcastle, after she told him she did not want to have sex.
The court heard she said “no” and “stop” and tried to physically resist but Hayne continued to assault her, leaving her with two lacerations and substantial bleeding.
In confusion, the woman texted her best friend after Hayne left, saying she did not know what had happened and “Jarryd Hayne just came here”.
Her friend responded: “What do you mean you don’t know? Is her still there?”
“He like got the taxi to wait outside and I heard a beep and was like is that your taxi and he’s like yeah and I said why did you think you’re going to just come here and have sex with me and he’s like no I can stay for as long as I like,” the victim replied.
“And I got mad I was like who are you kidding I’m not going to have sex with you for sure now. Then the taxi driver knocked on the door and was like it’s been 20 minutes. Then he started being really pushy like he wanted to have sex and I kept saying no”.
The woman then texted that Hayne “ended up getting his hand down there” and taking her pants off, adding she was “sort of scared but unsure” and she “wanted to but also didn’t”.
“And he was being so rough that blood started pouring all over the bed… it hurts… then he’s like ‘I gotta go’.”
She said she had told her mum – who she was living with at the time – that she had gotten a nosebleed.
Her friend responded: “OMG! If you kept saying no and now that’s happened, that’s rape!”
The woman went on to explain that they did not have sex but it all happened in under five minutes, and she felt weird because she didn’t know what was happening.
After sending photos of the blood in the room, the friend texted: “So he ripped you basically by being rough down there with his hand and mouth and then you started bleeding so he said I better go?”
When the friend asked if she could see a cut, the woman said she did not want to show her. She was asked if it hurt, and she said it had been stinging since.
Friend: “What did he say?”
Victim: “Not much I think he just wanted to get the f**k out of here. He was just quiet.”
Friend: “His (sic) a f***king c***. Are you okay?”
Victim: “Yeah I’m just laying here. I feel weird. Like violated but I don’t know. Just have my legs shut tightly.”
After sending screenshots of Hayne writing “go doctor tomorrow” in response to the victim telling him she was in pain, the friend said he was a “c***” for not apologising.
“I didn’t want to do it but I said stop and stuff and then I kind of just let it go because he was so into it and pushy,” the victim wrote.
“I feel like I’ve let it happen to myself by not screaming at him.”
In an effort to comfort the victim and help her understand she was not to blame, the friend wrote: “Yeah but sometimes when your (sic) in that situation after you’ve said no you kind of freeze.”
The friend reassured her: “It’s not your fault”.
The crimes Hayne has been found guilty of carry a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.
After being found guilty of two counts of rape – which he has always strenuously denied – Hayne was released on bail to return to court on Thursday for a bail review.
Outside court, the emotional two-time Dally-M winner told journalists he told the truth and would appeal the verdict.
