Rugby league-Australia's Hayne to face retrial after sexual assault conviction quashed

Australian rugby league international Jarryd Hayne has had his conviction for sexual assault overturned by the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal and has been ordered to face a retrial. The 33-year-old had been found guilty of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent at a woman's home in Newcastle in 2018 and was sentenced to five years and nine months in jail in May last year.

That conviction came after a first trial had ended in a hung jury in December 2020. He will now face a third trial after a three-judge panel upheld some of his grounds for appeal and quashed his conviction on Monday. Newcastle District Court Judge Helen Syme said at the time of sentencing last May that Hayne was fully aware the victim was not consenting and went ahead anyway.

"The reliability and honesty of the victim's evidence was tested at length and in my view, her reliability was not in doubt. She said no several times," the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) quoted Syme as saying. The incident happened on the night of the 2018 NRL Grand Final, when Hayne was in Newcastle for a friend's bachelor party.

In their appeal against the conviction, Hayne's legal team argued Judge Syme gave the jury "flawed" directions and said there were inconsistencies in the woman's evidence, according to ABC. They also claimed an outburst from the woman in court during her cross-examination was prejudicial.

Hayne played nearly 200 games for Sydney-based NRL team Parramatta Eels, winning the Dally M Medal, the league's highest individual honour, in 2009 and 2014. The Sydney-born fullback scored 11 tries in 11 appearances for the Kangaroos, Australia's representative rugby league team, and was named in the NRL's team-of-the-decade for 2010-19.

Hayne also had a brief career in American football, winning a contract with NFL side San Francisco 49ers in 2015, before quitting the game the following year to play rugby sevens for Fiji in a failed bid to earn selection for the Rio Olympics. Hayne was accused of sexual assault in a civil lawsuit brought by a woman in California in 2016 after police decided not to charge him over an alleged incident in 2015.

Hayne said at the time he "unequivocally and vehemently" denied the allegations. The case was settled in 2019 before going to trial.