Jarryd Hayne: Jury unable to reach verdict in sexual assault trial

The jury in the former NRL star’s sexual assault hearing has been discharged following a two-week trial.

A jury has been unable to reach a verdict in the trial of former NRL star Jarryd Hayne, who is accused of sexually assaulting a young woman at a home in Newcastle in 2018.

Mr Hayne denied forcing oral and digital sex on the woman, then 26, inside her bedroom while a taxi he had paid $550 to drive him to Sydney waited outside.

The 32-year-old had pleaded not guilty to two counts of aggravated sexual intercourse without consent recklessly inflicting actual bodily harm.

After a two-week trial before Newcastle District Court, and nearly two days of deliberation, a jury could not reach a unanimous or majority decision on either count.

Jarryd Hayne could face a retrial in 2021. Picture NCA NewsWire / Peter Lorimer.

The former Parramatta fullback was in town to attend a buck’s party for Fiji teammate on September 30, 2018, and stopped at the woman’s Fletcher home on the way back to Sydney.

They had never met before but had been exchanging explicit messages on Instagram and Snapchat for about two weeks before Mr Hayne’s visit to the house she shared with her mother.

Mr Hayne was accused of pulling off the woman’s pants before performing the sex acts on the woman without her consent, causing two lacerations to her genitalia and substantial bleeding.

“He pushed my face down and pulled my clothes off and … I’m not sure whether he bit me or cut me or whatever the hell he did but I was saying don’t, no, I don’t want to,” the woman, who can’t be named, told the court. “Then I was bleeding everywhere.”

Jarryd Hayne playing for NSW in 2017. Picture: AAP Image/Glenn Hunt

She told the court she froze and sent a text message to Mr Hayne 20 minutes after he left saying: “I am hurting so much”.

He later replied “Go doctor tomorrow”.

In court Mr Hayne denied the girl’s allegations she told him “no” and “stop”, claiming the sexual acts were consensual and her injuries an accident caused by his fingers.

He knew “she didn’t want to have sex” but he claimed they started kissing and he decided to “please her and that was it”.

Mr Hayne gave evidence over three days during the trial. Picture NCA NewsWire / Peter Lorimer.

She took her pants off, he said, and he inserted his fingers in her vagina before “going down” on her.

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

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

The woman’s injuries resulted in significant bleeding, with the court being played a video of blood-stained bedding captured on her mobile phone.

The court heard she did not immediately tell her mother - who was at home - about the incident and it was reported to police after her brother-in-law contacted the NRL Integrity Unit without her knowledge.

More to come.