Jarryd Hayne’s wife has broken down in tears as she made a passionate plea to keep her husband out of jail while he awaits his sentence for rape.
On Tuesday, a jury found the 35-year-old guilty of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent relating to 2018’s NRL Grand Final night.
Hayne was granted immediate bail to reappear at NSW’s Downing Centre Court on Thursday, when defence barrister Margaret Cunneen, SC, called Hayne’s wife, Amellia Bonnici, to the witness stand.
To a packed courtroom of about 30 supporters, Ms Bonnici said she married Hayne in 2021 before she was asked if she had three children with him.
“Yes,” she told the court, as she began crying.
Asked about the affidavit she prepared about what the next few weeks will mean to her family without Hayne’s support, she told the court: “I can’t even put that into words”.
Ms Bonnici told the court that if Hayne was sentenced to full-time prison, she would have to move to the country to live with her parents.
Crown Prosecutor John Sfinas SC asked Ms Bonnici if Hayne’s parents, who live in the Central Coast, could support her if she moved near them.
“Not as much as mine would. (Their support) is not the same as raising children,” she said.
Ms Bonnici told the court Hayne had recieved no income for the past five years and the family had been living off his savings.
She said her eldest child would have to move schools if they had to relocate. More than a dozen supporters flocked to the packed courtroom to hear the decision.
Mr Sfinas has made a detention application for Hayne to go straight to jail, which has been opposed by Ms Cunneen. The bail hearing continues.
Hayne faces a maximum of 14 years in prison.
During the 11-day trial, Crown prosecutor John Sfinas argued Hayne sexually assaulted the woman with his hands and mouth when he stopped by her house on the outskirts of Newcastle, after she told him she did not want to have sex.
The NSW District Court heard she said “no” and “stop” and tried to physically resist but gave up, before she was left with two lacerations and substantial bleeding.
On tuesday, Hayne’s supporters became emotional as the guilty verdict was read out.
Hayne’s wife, Amellia, put her head in her hands and cried before embracing her husband and his mother.
Outside court following the verdict, the two-time Dally-M winner told journalists he was devastated and would appeal the verdict.
The former Eels great said he “100 per cent” maintains his innocence.
“I never lied to police. I never deleted evidence. I never hid witnesses. You do the maths,” he said.
Asked if he had remorse or anything to say to the victim, he shot back to the journalist: “For telling the truth?” Did I lie? Did I lie? Did I lie? It’s factual evidence.”
How Hayne learned his fate
The 12-person jury spent eight days deliberating before returning their verdict 3:30pm on Tuesday.
That came hours after they sent a note to Judge Turnbull which read: “Dear Your Honour, we’ve taken another vote, and while we have made progress, we are not at a unanimous decision. We would like to clarify if ignorance of the law is a sufficient defence.”
In response to the jury’s note, Judge Turnbull told them the “short answer is no”, but that the facts of this case show there is a little more nuance to that.
“In this case, you must remember the burden of proof is on the Crown and the accused does not have to prove anything,” Judge Turnbull said.
“Neither the accused nor the complainant misunderstood that it was anything but illegal to force yourself on a woman without her consent, whether it be digitally or orally.
“It’s no part of the accused’s evidence that he did not know that it was illegal to have digital or oral intercourse with someone without consent. He has given an explanation and I remind you that if you accept that explanation as true or possibly true, that constitutes reasonable doubt and he’s entitled to be acquitted.”
Judge Turnbull told them they have to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt.
He reminded them it was the Crown’s case there was “never any consent to any sexual activity,” and that was conveyed by words and conduct explicitly to Hayne.
Judge Turnbull’s lengthy message came a day after he made a “Black Direction” asking them to reconsider the votes of a few jurors.
Hayne had pleaded not guilty to both crimes and maintained throughout the trial the acts were consensual.
The incident
The trial heard Hayne and the woman chatted on social media for two weeks leading up to September 30 but had not met in person.
It heard Hayne had invited the woman to meet him out the night before while he was at a party during the bucks’ weekend, but she did not want to because it was all men and instead invited him for coffee or breakfast the next morning.
Hayne continued to drink throughout the next day, the trial heard, and eventually arranged with the woman to visit her at her house in Fletcher the next night.
When he arrived shortly after 9pm, he left a half-empty vodka cruiser on the woman’s letterbox.
He told the jury her mother had answered the door, but the prosecution submitted that did not happen.
According to Hayne’s version of events given in his evidence, the mother directed him straight to the bedroom, where he felt awkward as the woman was shy, despite having sent sexual and suggestive texts.
He claimed he tried to break the ice by putting a few of his “go-to” songs on YouTube, including Ed Sheeran’s cover of Oasis’ song ‘Wonderwall’ before the woman noticed a taxi was waiting outside and was “filthy” about it.
A short time later, the taxi driver knocked on the door – as Hayne had told her he was only at the house to pick up a bag.
Hayne told the court he then went out to watch some of the NRL Grand Final with the woman’s mother before coming back into the bedroom, when the assault took place.
According to the prosecution, Hayne was in a rush to “get what he came for” despite the woman having told him she did not want to have sex once she knew a taxi was sitting outside.
Hayne denied that, saying he only wanted to “pleasure” the woman once she decided not to have sex, but the prosecution said such an act would require time for the woman to feel pleasured.
According to the prosecution, after about 30 seconds of the sex acts, Hayne realised the woman was bleeding, cleaned himself up and left.
Case’s history
This was the third time the two-time Dally M winner and ex-NFL convert had faced a jury over the assault.
A jury could not reach a verdict in his first trial in Newcastle in 2020.
He was convicted at a second trial in March, 2021 and sent to prison for nine months until he successfully appealed the decision. The Court of Appeal quashed that conviction and he walked free from prison on his 34th birthday, on February 14, 2022.
Hayne made his NRL debut in 2006 and played 214 games between Parramatta and the Gold Coast.
At his peak, he virtually guided Parramatta himself to the 2009 Grand Final – only to lose to the Melbourne Storm, who were later stripped of the premiership due to salary cap breaches.
In January 2021, he married his wife, Amellia, who has supported Hayne at each of his trials.
