Jarryd Hayne’s trial hears of text messages exchanged between alleged victim and best friend

Text messages between Jarryd Hayne’s alleged victim and her best friend have been revealed in the former NRL star’s sexual assault case.

The best friend of a woman who accused ex-NRL star Jarryd Hayne of sexual assault asked the alleged victim for photos of her injuries to assess the “damage” and told her “that’s rape”, a court has heard.

Hayne, 35, pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexual intercourse without consent after being accused of non-consensual oral and digital sex acts on the NRL Grand Final night four-and-a-half years ago.

In his opening arguments to the jury on Monday, Crown prosecutor John Sfinas alleged Hayne assaulted the woman on September 30, 2018 with a taxi waiting outside.

On the fifth day of trial, the alleged victim’s best friend of 10 years was asked by Mr Sfinas about the night of the alleged assault.

The court heard she was preparing for a child’s birthday party the next day when she received a message at 10:15pm from the alleged victim explaining her version of events from Hayne’s visit.

Mr Sfinas asked why she had texted: “if you kept saying no, that’s rape” and the friend responded: “From what she said to me, it didn’t sound like it was consensual.”

Jarryd Hayne arriving at court on Thursday, March 16. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Richard Dobson

The court heard she texted her friend, “he ripped you by being rough down there,” and asked for photos of the injuries because she was “concerned about what had happened”.

“I asked (for photos) to see what the damage was, I guess, to make sure she was okay,” the friend told the court.

The court heard she asked her friend if there was blood on the doona she’d recently bought her when she moved into her mum’s place following a bout of sickness, which she was still recovering from.

It heard the alleged victim sent her a screenshot of Hayne texting her to “go doctor tomorrow” in response to the complainant saying she was “hurting so much”.

Regarding that exchange, the friend texted the alleged victim: “He didn’t even say sorry, just ‘go to doctor’… he is a c***”.

Elaborating, the woman told the court she assumed Hayne would’ve apologised if he “hurt her in the way she was describing it,” adding it “seemed like a cold response”.

The court heard of texts exchanged between the alleged victim and her friend. Picture: Mockup

The woman told the court she went to the doctor a few days later with the alleged victim.

While being cross-examined, Hayne’s defence barrister, Margaret Cunneen KC, asked the friend if it was “very clear” to her the alleged victim wasn’t sure what happened to cause the bleeding, to which the friend said: “At the time, it seemed that way, yes”.

Ms Cunneen quizzed her on her knowledge of interactions between her friend and Hayne prior to September 30.

She told the court her friend only mentioned Hayne once before that night, which was to say she was talking to him – but she said she didn’t pry further.

Ms Cunneen asked: Do you recall being shocked (she) was talking to someone so well-known” to which the friend said that at the time, she must have been.

Ms Cunneen asked: “And still, you didn’t say to her, ‘Well how well do you know him?’”

The friend told the court she didn’t follow the football and “didn’t know him to be a well-known star” so it “wasn’t a big thing” for her.

“I believe I wasn’t shocked (at his status), it was more that she was maybe talking to a male I didn’t know she was speaking to previously,” she added.

The woman was asked if she was aware of sexual messages exchanged between the pair in the lead up to them meeting, including the alleged victim saying “I imagined what it would be like f****ing you,” and the friend said she was not.

Hayne flanked by his legal team. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Richard Dobson

Hayne’s accuser was “not herself” the day after the alleged assault, her friend told the court, explaining how at a party she sat in a chair and “didn’t interact with anyone”.

“She didn’t participate in any of the party… she was very down that day,” she told the court.

Ms Cunneen suggested the friend was “down” because she was suffering enduring symptoms from an illness, including an eye that was “almost closed”.

“So it was quite common to see her down about things over that period,” Ms Cunneen said.

The friend told the court: “Not to the extent of how down she was this day, because of what had happened,” and that she believed her friend’s eye had been improving.

Earlier in the trial, Mr Sfinas told the court Hayne paid a taxi driver $550 to take him from Newcastle, where he had spent the weekend at a bucks’ party, back to Sydney – stopping off at the woman’s home in Fletcher in Newcastle’s outer suburbs.

He told the court the pair went into her bedroom, and shortly after came a “defining moment” where the alleged victim heard the taxi beeping outside and realised he was “only there for one thing - sex”.

Mr Snifas told the court in this moment she decided she did not want to have any sexual activity with him.

But he told the court Hayne allegedly pulled her jeans off and was “quite rough and forceful” despite the alleged victim saying “no and stop”.

He alleged he cleaned “up blood from his hands and mouth” and left.

The crown alleged the woman then felt stinging and swelling when she went into the shower to clean herself up.

The court heard she texted Hayne hours later to say she was hurting, and he eventually responded: “go doctor tomorrow”.

A jury was empanelled at the NSW District Court on Monday, after Hayne said “not guilty, Your Honour” to two charges of sexual intercourse without consent.

Earlier, in his brief opening remarks to the wider jury panel, Mr Sfinas said the complainant and Hayne had “never actually met” before the night in question.

He told the court the complainant reached out to Hayne on Instagram and for the next two weeks the pair spoke on the platform, as well as Snapchat, before finally meeting on September 30.

But Ms Cunneen told the court the sexual acts were consensual.

“For her own reasons she has lied, or exaggerated, or changed her mind about what really happened,” Ms Cunneen told the court.

“Even if she didn’t want to have sex, she was still completely open to him kissing and fondling her… while his pants remained on... He did not do anything he thought was wrong.”

Hayne made his NRL debut in 2006 and played 214 games between Parramatta and the Gold Coast.

He then took on eight games in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers, before his career came crashing down.

The trial, which is expected to run for around two weeks, continues.

Originally published as Jarryd Hayne’s trial hears of text messages exchanged between alleged victim and best friend