Sydney
Jarryd Hayne, a rugby league star who also played briefly in the NFL for the San Francisco 49ers, has been sentenced to at least three years and eight months in jail for the sexual assault of a woman in 2018. Hayne was found guilty in March of two counts of sexual assault.
A judge ruled on Thursday that Hayne should be jailed for five years, nine months with a non-parole period of three years and eight months.
After the sentencing was announced, Hayne was taken away by corrective services officials.
Hayne was found not guilty of the two more serious charges of aggravated sexual assault without consent inflicting actual bodily harm.
The 33-year-old Hayne had denied assaulting the woman in the bedroom of her home in Newcastle, north of Sydney, in September 2018.
Court testimony said Hayne had a taxi waiting out front of the woman’s home while he was with her. In handing down the sentence, District Court Judge Helen Syme said she found that Hayne was fully aware that the victim was not consenting and that he proceeded anyway.
“The reliability and honesty of the victim’s evidence was tested at length and in my view, her reliability was not in doubt. She said no several times,” Syme said.—AFP
