Former rugby league star Jarryd Hayne was walked free from a Sydney prison after the court of criminal appeal quashed his sexual assault convictions. It is the latest development in an extraordinary legal saga, in which Hayne was tried three times, over allegations he raped a Newcastle woman on the night of the 2018 NRL Grand Final. The Director of Public Prosecutions is yet to decided whether he will face a fourth trial.
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00:00As Jarrod Hayne left a Western Sydney prison, there was a sense of déjà vu.
00:07This is the second time the former NRL star has won an appeal after he was convicted of raping a woman at her Newcastle home.
00:14He's really, really looking forward to getting home to his family.
00:18It's been six years since Hayne was accused of sexually assaulting the woman at her Newcastle home, allegedly leaving her bleeding from the genitals.
00:25This time, the Court of Criminal Appeal was split two judges to one.
00:29But the success of Hayne's appeal hinged on how the trial judge dealt with a series of messages the complainant had sent a friend around the time of the alleged assault and later deleted.
00:39In them, she told her friend that Hayne had come over, paid for a taxi driver to stay out the front, and that it was really rushed.
00:47His lawyers had argued the messages showed the encounter was consensual and there was no reference to her injury or the sex being forced.
00:55They told the Court of Criminal Appeal they should have been allowed to cross-examine the complainant about the messages
01:00and said the jury also deserved to hear her explain why she allegedly told police,
01:05if those messages get out, I'm f***ed and he will get off.
01:09The majority of judges agreed with that argument, with one saying,
01:12the jury were deprived of evidence which had significance for their assessment of the honesty of the complainant.
01:18They also agreed with Hayne's lawyers that the trial judge had erred in how he had directed the jury to treat allegations the complainant had lied.
01:25The judgment is the latest chapter in a long-running legal saga for the two-time Dallier Medal winner.
01:31After Hayne was arrested and charged in 2018, the first trial in 2020 returned a hung jury.
01:38In the 2021 retrial, Hayne was found guilty and sent to prison.
01:42Then in 2022, that conviction was quashed and Hayne released.
01:46Before a third trial in 2023 found Hayne guilty again.
01:50Now the two convictions from that trial have also been quashed.
01:54The Director of Public Prosecutions will now decide if Hayne will face a fourth trial.
01:58But in the judgment, Justice Sweeney suggested that given the history of the matter, it would not be in the interests of justice.
02:05Over the last 20 years, at least in my involvement with the law as a judge and former judge,
02:10I think I can only think of one case where there's been a fourth trial.
02:15Such an unusual situation really.
02:18And it's a very hard situation on the accused and it's a hard situation on people who are the alleged victims.
02:25Very difficult to go through it all a fourth time.
02:28Hayne is now on conditional bail with his fate in the hands of the DPP.
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