Jarryd Hayne hires three female lawyers to defend him on rape charges
Former NRL superstar Jarryd Hayne has revealed his legal team who will defend him in the third run of his rape trial— and it’s heavy on the girl power.
Police & Courts
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Former NRL superstar Jarryd Hayne has pinned his hopes for freedom on an all-star cast of three female lawyers who will represent him in the third instalment of his rape trial.
It was revealed in the Downing Centre District Court yesterday that high-profile Sydney solicitor Lauren MacDougall will make up the final piece of the two-time Dally M medal winner’s legal team for his trial, which is set to begin in March next year.
Ms MacDougall will join barristers Margaret Cunneen SC and Claire O’Neill (pictured above) as the trio who will defend the former Parramatta Eels fullback against allegations he raped a woman inside her home near Newcastle on the night of the 2018 Grand Final.
The identity of who would take up the solicitor’s role in the State of Origin hero’s case had remained a mystery until yesterday.
The position had been left vacant after the 34-year-old’s previous solicitor, Penny Musgrave, was appointed as a judge in the NSW District Court.
In court yesterday, Ms MacDougall was granted an application by Judge Timothy Gartelmann SC to have Hayne’s bail reporting conditions altered to mean he no longer has to report to a Western Sydney police station once a week.
Hayne’s first trial ended in the jury being deadlocked at Newcastle District Court.
In the second trial, Judge Helen Syme sentenced Hayne to a maximum five years and nine months after he was found guilty by a jury in the Sydney District Court.
Hayne was released from jail in February after serving nine months behind bars. This came after he won an appeal against his conviction.
The three judge panel in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal found Judge Syme made a flawed direction to the jury when summing up the case.
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