Jarryd Hayne breaks silence in sexual assault trial

The former Parramatta and NSW fullback on Friday broke his two-year silence on the matter when he testified in the Newcastle District Court, claiming at no point did the woman tell him to stop or say no.

Mr Hayne took the stand having pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexual intercourse without consent aggravated by recklessly inflicting actual bodily harm.

Read Next

The 32-year-old has been accused of showing up drunk to the woman’s house, in Fletcher on Newcastle’s outskirts, which she shared with her mother, before allegedly performing oral and digital sex without her consent.

The woman previously told the court that she was bleeding profusely and in considerable pain after the encounter.

Addressing the allegations for the first time, Mr Hayne told the jury all acts were consensual and he had accidentally made her bleed when he scratched her with his fingernail while performing digital sex.

After the alleged incident, Mr Hayne claimed he told the woman to see a doctor if she was still hurting the next day, before leaving in a cab that drove him back to Sydney.

The two had a social media conversation several weeks afterwards in which she said she “definitely wasn’t OK from the damage that night”.

Asked by his barrister Phillip Boulten SC how he was feeling at that stage, Mr Hayne replied: “I was fuming. I could tell she was trying to start up something that wasn’t true.”

They began talking via Instagram in 2018 with their messages soon becoming sexual.

Asked about the messages in the witness stand on Friday afternoon, Mr Hayne said: “It kind of speaks for itself. She was keen, she was upfront.”

The alleged assault occurred on September 30 while Hayne was in Newcastle for a two-day buck’s party for his former Fiji Test teammate Wes Naiqama.

Early on the Sunday evening, he had a short phone conversation with the woman in which he said he was headed back to Sydney but said he would stop by her house.

Asked about his intentions at that point, Mr Hayne said: “It was up in the air, best case scenario I would be having sex with her, worst case I would just get introduced and that was it.”

He arranged to pay a taxi $550 to take him back to Sydney but directed the driver to take him to the woman’s house, telling the female driver he had to pick up his bags.

Despite having never met the woman, he arrived with a four-pack of vodka cruisers and described himself as being a “five or six” on a scale of drunkenness at that point.

However he described the encounter as “awkward” after her mother answered the door, who directed him to the woman’s room.

He said he attempted to woo her by singing along to a Ed Sheeran song on YouTube, however they were interrupted by the taxi driver, who knocked on the front door.

He returned a short time later but left again soon after when he realised the grand final was in its closing stages and went out into the loungeroom to watch the game with the woman’s mother who he told: “Go the Roosters.”

“I had a chance to sign with the Roosters in 2016 … Those thoughts of it could have been me winning the comp. It wasn’t meant to be,” Mr Hayne told the court.

When he returned, he began kissing the woman, which he claimed she reciprocated.

Things progressed to the point that, according to Mr Hayne, she pulled her pants off.

Mr Hayne said: “I knew she didn’t want to have sex, I just wanted to please her.”

He said he began performing oral sex on the woman, and despite her claims in the witness box earlier in the week that she had asked him to stop, Mr Hayne said that she was “breathing heavy” and appeared to be enjoying it.

Asked if she ever told him to stop, Mr Hayne said: “No.”

However he said he was soon shocked when she began to bleed and he quickly rushed to the bathroom to wash himself.

“I felt the sense of a different liquid hit my lip — it was like a shock, I jumped up,” Mr Hayne told the court.

After she complained of a stinging sensation, he said he told her to see a doctor the next day, before he left in a cab back to Sydney.

Asked if he ever bit the woman, Mr Hayne said: “No.”

The court heard the woman, who cannot be identified, first contacted police on November 5 and detectives began tapping Mr Hayne’s phone five days later.

In one of five calls played to the jury on Friday morning, Mr Hayne is heard telling Newcastle Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce, the woman was from “Newie” and “a couple of your boys might know her, bro”.

Mr Hayne told his former Origin teammate the woman had been “sending me all these nude snaps, bro”.

During the November 15 call, Mr Hayne described the woman as a “full-blown weirdo” and that she was “f****** filthy” because he had kept a taxi running out front.

“I watched a bit of the grand final with her old girl,” Mr Hayne said.

Mr Hayne was heard telling Mr Pearce that while performing a sexual act on her that “my fingernail must have just clipped” her.

“Yeah, yeah, nah, I spoke to my lawyer and that. Oh mate, I’ll get her in defamation easy,” Mr Hayne replied.

The trial will continue on Monday with the rest of Mr Hayne’s testimony.

PHONE CALL BETWEEN HAYNE AND PEARCE REVEALED

HAYNE: Hey bro, what’s doing?

PEARCE: What are you doing, brother?

HAYNE: (Chuckles) Oh …

PEARCE: You under the pump?

HAYNE: Hey?

PEARCE: Who’s this sheila coming out saying something about ya?

HAYNE: Oh she’s, f**k, she’s from Newie, bro

PEARCE: Newie?

HAYNE: Full-blown weirdo. Yeah.

PEARCE: What, who, who is she? Are you under the pump?

HAYNE: Yeah. Ask, you know what, ask your boys if you – there’s a couple of your boys might know her, bro. F**kin’…

PEARCE: What’s, what’s her name, bro?

HAYNE: I’ll have a look. It’s (says name)

PEARCE: (Woman’s name.) I’ll ask the boys. What, did you put it on her on Instagram and she wigged out, or you hooked up with her?

HAYNE: Nah. She was just sending me all these, all these nude snaps, bro, on Snapchat and that wanting…

PEARCE: Yeah?

HAYNE: … (Stutters) wanting to link up, link up; said “yeah, yeah”. Then I was in Newie, I was like, oh, I’ll pop in on the way home. So I did that and then f**kin she was filthy cause the cab was out the front. I said, “Oh well, mate, I’m only going to be here for, you know, (laughs) a short time.” She just …

PEARCE: Yeah

HAYNE: Wigged out. And then, um, went – like I watched a bit of the grand final with her old girl. (Laughs)

PEARCE: Yeah

HAYNE: Come, come back and we were just fooling around and she like, she like bled a little bit. It was weird.

PEARCE: Yeah

HAYNE: I was like f**k …

PEARCE: And then she wigged out and that … going on …

HAYNE: Then, then she just wigged out. I said, “Listen, nah you’re sweet.” I said, “F**kin my like my fingernail must have clipped you, that’s all.” There was …

PEARCE: Yeah

HAYNE: … nothing major. Like, it was just a little bit. Full wigged out. Said, “Nah, nah, it’s sweet, sweet.” So we watched a bit of, um, bit of like, um, like f**kin music videos and that. I was like “Oh, OK, I’d, I’d better go now,” rah-rah-rah. And then she was just like filthy that I left her there. (Laughs) I was like, what the f**k?

PEARCE: And then, what, she just wigged, wigged out and called the papers and that.

HAYNE: Yeah bro. Just today, trying to say that I was aggressive and she said, “No, no, no.” I’m like, nate, f**k, I didn’t get my pants off. Like, what the f**k?

PEARCE: What …

HAYNE: Oh, bro

PEARCE: distorted transmission … Yeah have you got a lawyer and that?

HAYNE: Yeah, yeah, nah, I spoke to my lawyer and that. Oh mate, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll get her in defamation easy. Like …

PEARCE: Yeah

HAYNE: Bro. Full-blown – like the next, the next day she was trying to message, message me going, you know, “I’m in the park, this that.” I’m going “Mate, f**kin” …

PEARCE: I’m what?

HAYNE: “I’m in a park by myself. I don’t feel safe.” I’m like (laughs) what the f**k?

PEARCE: Trying to wig you out and that?

HAYNE: Oy, bro, I’ve got to go, bro. My lawyer’s calling me. I’ve got to go.

PEARCE: Yeah, when are you up in Newie next, bro? We’ll catch up. When you around?

HAYNE: Oh, I’ll let you know, brother, I’ll let you know.

PEARCE: All right bro. Look after yourself. See ya bro.

HAYNE: All right ledge. Bye-bye.

Read Next