Jarryd Hayne sentenced to four years in jail over sexual assault verdict
Disgraced former NRL star Jarryd Hayne has been jailed for at least three years after sexually assaulting a woman in her home. The 35-year-old was found guilty of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent on April 4 and taken into custody 10 days later when his bail was revoked.
Hayne maintains his innocence and has not accepted responsibility for the crimes a jury found him guilty of, the sentencing judge said on Friday. He assaulted the woman with his hands and mouth in her suburban Newcastle home on NRL grand final night 2018.
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The pair cleaned blood off themselves in her ensuite before Hayne returned to a taxi he paid $550 to wait outside and drive him to Sydney. She cannot be identified, but in a statement read to the court on Monday, said her life has been "launched into what feels like a never-ending nightmare" in the almost five years since.
"I am stronger and I am wiser but I am damaged, and I won't ever be the same person," she wrote. NSW District Court Judge Graham Turnbull said Hayne was much bigger than the woman he assaulted after he "reefed" her pants away, as he jailed him for a total of four years and nine months with a non-parole period of three years on Friday.
"He overwhelmed her in an inherently unequal contest … to achieve some sexual gratification," he said. "His preparedness to utilise ultimately the complainant as some kind of sexual object is a matter of significance in the manner in which he went about committing this offence."
Jarryd Hayne to spend minimum three years in prison
Hayne's sentence is backdated to May 7, 2022 due to previous time in custody and other factors the judge considered. He spent nine months in jail before verdicts were overturned, requiring another trial, his third on charges laid in November 2018.
The first trial's jury was unable to reach a verdict. Hayne played most of his 214 NRL games for the Parramatta Eels as well as representing Australia and Fiji, being selected for NSW in 23 State of Origin matches.
He appeared in court in prison greens via videolink on Friday. Hayne will be eligible for parole on May 6, 2025. "Say no more," Hayne said, as he was taken off screen after the sentence was delivered.
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