Former NRL star Jarryd Hayne has had his rape convictions quashed after a successful appeal. The 36-year-old has spent a year behind bars after a jury convicted him of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent in April 2023 after an earlier guilty verdict was overturned in a separate appeal. The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal quashed Hayne’s convictions on Wednesday on the basis a judge erred in not allowing the complainant to be further cross-examined during the trial.
Hayne was accused of raping a woman in her home on the night of the 2018 NRL Grand Final. Three separate criminal trials were told the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, changed her mind about having sex with Hayne after realising he had a taxi waiting outside her house. Hayne’s barrister, Tim Game SC, told an appeal hearing in April that the woman deleted messages between herself and Hayne that demonstrated she had initially shown a sexual interest in him.