NRL star Jarryd Hayne’s sexual assault convictions quashed, granted bail
Former NRL star, Jarryd Hayne has been granted bail after winning an appeal against his conviction for sexually assaulting a woman in Newcastle in 2018. The appeal judges say a decision on whether to hold another trial is now a matter for the NSW director of public prosecutions.
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00:00He had three different grounds and he was successful on two of those grounds which was
00:05enough for his conviction to be overturned.
00:08Last year, 36-year-old Hain was handed a jail sentence of nearly five years for the alleged
00:13sexual assault of a woman in her Newcastle home on the night of the NRL grand final back
00:18in 2018.
00:20He was found guilty by a jury of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent.
00:25Now the appeal grounds that he has been successful on, one was concerning the judge's decision
00:30not to allow further cross-examination of the complainant in this most recent trial
00:35and the second one was concerning a direction to the jury about how the jurors should deal
00:40with alleged lies told by the complainant.
00:43So the court has quashed his conviction in a split decision, two judges to one.
00:47Jared Hain was on a video link from a prison in Lidcombe in Sydney's west.
00:54He's been held at that minimum security facility since last year.
00:58He didn't really show much of a reaction when he learned about this appeal outcome today
01:03but he will actually be walking out of prison very soon.
01:07We understand that might happen at the earliest point sometime this afternoon.
01:13He's been granted bail.
01:14The Crown prosecutor didn't oppose bail.
01:17He's been given bail conditions including a $20,000 surety, a prohibition on contacting
01:22the complainant in this matter and also he's not allowed to go anywhere in the Newcastle
01:27local government area.
01:29Let's have a listen to what his lawyer, Lauren McDougall, said outside court today.
01:33He's really, really looking forward to getting home to his family and that's all I'm prepared
01:38to say at this point.
01:39Are you ready to go in the fourth round?
01:40I'm not going to say anything further.
01:42Thank you.
01:43We heard from Justice Stephen Rothman who was one of the appeal judges and he's pointed
01:47out that whether or not there is another trial in this case is really a matter for the New
01:51South Wales Director of Public Prosecutions.
01:54But having a look at the appeal decision, the written version of this, there are some
01:58comments that the appeal judges have made.
02:00Justice Deborah Sweeney in her part of the judgment said that normally the success of
02:06two grounds of appeal would open the door to consideration of a new trial but she expressed
02:11a view that in the circumstances and the history of this matter, putting Jarrod Hayne on trial
02:16for a fourth time would not be in the interests of justice.
02:20Justice Stephen Rothman similarly expressed that type of opinion.
02:24He noted that Jarrod Hayne's parole date is the 6th of May next year and that means that
02:30it's unlikely that a new trial will occur before the expiry of that non-parole period.
02:35This case certainly has a very complicated history as well.
02:38Jarrod Hayne has been tried three times.
02:40His first trial resulted in a hung jury.
02:43He was convicted by a jury at the second trial but then that result was overturned on appeal
02:47and that led us to this third trial where he was again convicted but that conviction
02:52today has been quashed.
02:54We've heard from the New South Wales DPP on this question of whether or not there will
02:57be another trial and in a statement they've said that any decision about that will be
03:01made in accordance with the prosecution guidelines.
03:04The first point we might get to where we hear more about that question will be in late July
03:09when Jarrod Hayne has another court date.