NRL star Jarryd Hayne appeals against rape conviction, hoping sentence will be quashed for a second time

Hayne has launched an appeal against his rape guilty verdict from behind bars, hoping the same court that quashed his first conviction in 2022 will do so a second time.

Disgraced NRL star Jarryd Hayne has launched an appeal against his rape guilty verdict, hoping the same court that quashed his first conviction in 2022 will do so a second time.

Hayne officially lodged his appeal with the Court of Criminal Appeal last Wednesday, with his high-profile barrister Margaret Cunneen SC saying the basis for the appeal was “on the grounds of an unreasonable and unjustifiable verdict not supported by the evidence”.

Hayne was sentenced to four years and nine months jail over the attack on a woman in her Newcastle home on NRL grand final day in 2018.

With time already served, Hayne is currently due to be eligible for parole in next May.

Jarryd Hayne is taken into custody at the King St Courts in Sydney after being found guilty of rape in April 2923. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

But the former Parramatta Eels and Gold Coast Titans playmaker is hoping to walk free sooner than that, if the CCA quashes his conviction for rape.

Hayne’s first trial in December 2020 ended with a jury unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

A second trial in March 2021 saw the footballer found guilty by a jury on two counts of sexual intercourse without consent, for which he was sentenced to five years and nine months prison.

While behind bars at Cooma Gaol he launched an appeal to the CCA, who quashed the NSW District Court verdict and ordered a retrial.

At that trial a jury again found Hayne guilty by a jury on two counts of sexual intercourse without consent.

Hayne immediately forecast his plans to appeal after being found guilty last year with the matter first set to be heard this Friday, January 25.
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