[ad_1]
His remaining sexual assault charges against Jarryd Hayne have been officially dropped, ending years of legal battles for the former National Rugby League star.
The 36-year-old had convictions on two counts of non-consensual sexual assault overturned by an appeals court earlier this month, after prosecutors revealed they would not launch a fourth trial.
Prosecutors today formally dropped the remaining charges, leaving Hayne to walk out of court at Sydney’s Downing Center free of charges for the first time in years.
“The record will reflect that the Crown has dropped any and all proceedings against Mr. Hayne,” Judge Craig Everson told the court.
A jury found Hayne guilty in April 2023 and he was sentenced to a maximum of four years and nine months in prison.
He is alleged to have hand and mouth raped a woman at her Newcastle home on the night of the 2018 NRL grand final.
But earlier this month the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal overturned Hayne’s convictions on the basis that a judge had erred in not allowing the appellant to be further cross-examined during the trial.
In three separate criminal trials, the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was told that she changed her mind about having sex with Hein after realizing there was a taxi waiting outside her house.
The former NRL player’s lawyer, Tim Game SC, told a hearing in April that the woman had deleted messages between herself and Hayne that showed she had initially shown a sexual interest in him.
His defense attorney also argued the woman should have been cross-examined about why she told police: “If these messages get out, I’m screwed and he’s gone.”
Judge Graham Turnbull, who oversaw Hayne’s third trial, refused requests for the woman to be cross-examined about the statement, saying it carried “almost infinitesimal weight”.
Hayne’s overturned convictions followed a jury verdict in his first trial in 2020 and a previous appeal overturning a 2021 conviction from his second trial.
[ad_2]
