The former NRL star Jarryd Hayne felt entitled to have sex with the “silly young cow who messaged him”, and was forceful and rough in getting what he came for, a Sydney jury has been told.
The crown prosecutor, Brian Costello, in his closing address to the New South Wales district court on Tuesday, said that was Hayne’s mindset when he met up with a 26-year-old woman for the first time on 30 September 2018.
The 33-year-old is facing a retrial and has pleaded not guilty to two charges of aggravated sexual assault inflicting actual bodily harm.
Hayne had paid a taxi driver $550 to drive him back to Sydney but asked for a small detour “to pick up a bag” in the outskirts of Newcastle where the woman lived with her mother.
The former State of Origin player had left his friends drinking at a bucks party and was also missing watching his old teammates in the NRL grand final that evening because he was after “one thing, and one thing only”, the crown argues.
“No means no,” Costello said on Tuesday. “But he simply ignored it.”
Costello gave the jury nine reasons why they should view Hayne as an unreliable and dishonest witness, arguing his evidence made no sense in significant ways.
Hayne testified that the woman had become “filthy” after finding out a car was waiting for him and he knew she did not want sex. But, he said, he wanted to “please her”.
“The best-case scenario was having sex with her. The worse-case scenario was I get to introduce myself and that was it,” he said in his recorded evidence played at the retrial.
His “solution” to her being upset about him seemingly coming over just for sex, was to try to fix the problem by engaging in sexual activity with her, Costello noted.
But Hayne’s defence lawyer, Richard Pontello SC, said the woman’s “fairytale attraction” to the famous footballer was like a “lovesickness”, displayed in the sexually charged messages she sent to him beforehand, including nude photographs.
About a year prior to the alleged assault, the woman contacted him via Instagram saying “you’re absolutely gorgeous”.
“The more attracted you are to someone, the more likely you are to agree to sexual activity even after a disappointing event,” Pontello said.
He also questioned whether someone would send a text message saying “I thought you would have at least stayed” to a person who sexually assaulted them.
The complainant testified that Hayne was “rough, forceful and inconsiderate”, despite her protests of “no” and “no Jarryd”, and pushed her face into the pillow before ripping her jeans off.
The alleged sexual assault lasted about 30 seconds before she was injured and started bleeding. “Once he did that he couldn’t get out of the house quick enough,” Costello said.
Given the unfavourable circumstances that continued stacking up against Hayne, he had no reasonable grounds for believing she would have consented to any sexual activity that evening, Costello said.
But Pontello said Hayne was content to “take it or leave it” that evening, and fully respected her wishes not to have sex after finding out about the taxi, stating: “It’s up to you, really.”
Hayne does not deny the sexual activity occurred but says the woman willingly and voluntarily consented to other acts he performed on her. He testified she was breathing heavily throughout the sexual encounter.
The second trial is drawing to a close with the jury expected to retire on Wednesday to deliberate on its verdicts.
