Former NRL star Jarryd Hayne’s lawyers are applying for the woman he is accused of sexually assaulting to be again called to give evidence in a third trial.
The former footy legend did not appear in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on Monday as lawyers confirmed the trial will be going ahead on March 6.
The 34-year-old is accused of assaulting a 26-year-old woman in Newcastle in 2018.
Defence solicitor Lauren MacDougall faced court on behalf of Mr Hayne.
She told the court she will be applying to recall the complainant to give evidence in the new trial.
“The Crown’s on notice about that,” she said.
The complainant gave evidence during the first trial in 2020, but video footage was used during the second trial.
Judge Warwick Hunt confirmed the trial date.
“The accused has put the crown on notice that it seeks to recall the complainant,” Judge Hunt said before adjourning the matter for one week for pre-trial orders to be made.
Mr Hayne’s trial in March will be the third over allegations he sexual assaulted a woman in Newcastle in 2018.
Following three days of deliberations by a jury, he was last year found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman at her Newcastle home on NRL grand final night in 2018.
He was subsequently sentenced by Judge Helen Syme to five years and nine months jail, with a non-parole period of three years and eight months.
The former Dally M winner and ex-NFL convert sat in Cooma Correctional Centre for nine months before the state’s highest court, the Court of Criminal Appeal, quashed his conviction and ordered a retrial.
Mr Hayne walked out of prison on February 15 in time to celebrate his 34th birthday.
The first trial in Newcastle in late 2020 ended in a hung jury.
Mr Hayne has consistently denied the allegations.
