On Tuesday, Jarryd Hayne was found guilty on two counts of sexual assault. The conviction comes nearly five years after the former rugby league player was first charged by police, when a 26-year-old woman alleged he raped her in her Newcastle home in September 2018.
Since then, there have been three trials. The first took place at the end of 2020, resulting in a hung jury.
The woman’s evidence was recorded, and played in a second trial to a new jury between March and May in 2021. This jury convicted Hayne on two counts of sexual assault. Hayne was sentenced to five years and nine months in jail.
He had served 9 months when the conviction was quashed on appeal and a retrial was ordered.
In a third trial this year, the evidence was played in a closed court to another jury consisting of 6 men and 6 women. The prosecution accused Hayne of performing non-consensual digital and oral sex on the woman, leaving her bleeding, on the night of the NRL grand final in 2018.
This week, that jury convicted Hayne of sexual assault, with his sentencing due at a later date. Hayne has maintained his innocence throughout each trial, arguing it was consensual.
After he was convicted on Tuesday, Hayne told reporters outside the court that he maintained his innocence “100 per cent” and would seek another appeal.
It means the years-long ordeal might not yet be over.
Throughout it all, the woman at the centre of the case has endured untold trauma, dealing with the justice system, intense media attention, the extent of retrials, and jury indecision.
When Hayne was first convicted in the second trial in 2021, the woman laid bare the trauma she had endured while reading a victim impact statement in court.
She said: “My body remembers and my mind hasn’t let me forget”, noting that it had “destroyed” and “damaged” her, and she had been unable to participate in work or study.
“People talk about my vagina, my choices, and like to give their opinions based on what they’ve heard, and it is the most helpless feeling,” she told the court.
“No matter what happened before or after the assault, no matter who he was or what he’s done, no means no.”
Hayne’s guilty verdict at this latest trial might reflect a shift in how we, as a society, think about high-profile male sporting stars who are accused of violence against women. We are no longer willing to turn a blind eye.
But there’s no escaping that the justice system has a long way to go before victims of such sexual violence are adequately supported should they choose to report an assault.
Three trials over nearly five years and constant re-traumatisation is too much for any survivor of sexual violence to endure.
If you or someone you know is impacted by family and domestic violence or sexual assault, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au.
In an emergency, call 000.