By Sarah McPhee
A woman allegedly sexually assaulted by former NRL player Jarryd Hayne had consistently messaged another man that day, telling him if he did not go and see her, “she would get Jarryd Hayne to come over”, a court has heard.
The man was the final witness at Hayne’s retrial in the NSW District Court, and the only witness on the defence case, giving evidence for 20 minutes before the jury on Thursday afternoon.
Jarryd Hayne leaves the NSW District Court with his wife.Credit: Louise Kennerley
Hayne has pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexual intercourse without consent relating to the oral and digital penetration of a 26-year-old woman in Newcastle on September 30, 2018, which the defence claims was “entirely consensual”. The woman was left bleeding after the incident.
In his evidence via video link, the other man said he had met the woman three times ahead of September 30, 2018, when she contacted him “continually” as he had lunch and dinner with friends.
Hayne’s barrister Margaret Cunneen, SC, took the witness through screenshots of the exchange, noting the first message from the woman was, “You made me feel f---ing terrible today, bye [waving emoji].”
The man told the court he “didn’t want to go see her” and “she wanted me to go over to her house”.
Cunneen said the woman then messaged, “Are you going to talk to me? Otherwise I won’t. At least answer me and not be a dick”, and the man had replied, “You honestly lost me at ‘Jarryd Hayne is your side boy’ [four laughing until tears come out of your eyes emojis].”
Asked if the woman had told him “something about Jarryd Hayne before that”, the man gave evidence, “she was saying if I didn’t go see her, she would get Jarryd Hayne to come over”.
Cunneen said the woman then messaged, “He isn’t. He contacted me last night and asked for my number and rang me. I told him ‘no’.”
The man said he had stopped talking to the woman that day when she sent further messages that read, “You said ‘maybe’, so I’m asking if you’re not? I feel like a f---ing idiot. Are you coming over?” and “K, if we aren’t going to keep talking, I’m going to say yes to Jarryd Hayne coming here to hang out when he’s done with his mates; otherwise I won’t let him.”
The man said the woman “consistently kept texting” and he had replied, “OMG [four heart eyes emojis] get me his signature, babe xx.”
“That was a joke because I thought she was joking, I didn’t take it seriously,” the man told the court.
“All I can recall was just feeling like she was being aggressive, and she was just messaging me non-stop talking to herself.”
The court heard that in a further six messages, the woman had again asked the man if he was coming over, had said, “stop talking to me altogether”, that he was being a jerk and, “I’m really upset and this is bringing me down so badly”.
The man estimated the last message was received about 8pm. Hayne arrived at the woman’s house at 9.07pm.
The court has heard police did not know about the woman’s messages to the other man until he approached Hayne’s lawyer during the first trial in 2020. The man gave a statement to police this month.
Under cross-examination this week, the officer in charge of the investigation, Detective Inspector Eugene Stek, said police conducted a “Cellebrite” examination of the woman’s phone in March 2019, and he did not believe messages to and from the other man were able to be obtained.
Stek said it was dependent upon the social media application used – “whether that be Snapchat or Instagram”, the settings and the functionality allowing messages to be saved or not.
He also agreed with Cunneen’s suggestion that a “large number of messages”, accepting her count of 19, exchanged between Hayne and the woman were deleted from the woman’s phone before she gave it to police in November 2018.
Beginning his closing address, Crown prosecutor John Sfinas said the jury should put the woman’s messages to the man to one side, other than that she was “prepared to forfeit seeing the accused”.
He said the woman “was not completely obsessed or wedded to the idea” that she would see Hayne, and the jury might think she was “demonstrating a degree of indifference, a preference to spend time with someone else”.
Pointing to the message about “saying yes to Jarryd”, Sfinas said the woman had been open to having sex with Hayne, but there were “defining moments” which “dissolved that possibility”, including when she realised Hayne had a taxi waiting outside for his journey back to Sydney.
“It is open for you to infer her intention was to spend time with the accused if he was to come over,” the prosecutor said. “You might think having a taxi waiting outside for 20 minutes does not align with that expectation. She realised that she was nothing more than a diversion.”
He said the woman’s evidence was “she did not consent”.
Closing addresses are expected to continue on Friday before the jury begins deliberations next week.
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