Disgraced former rugby league superstar Jarryd Hayne sits in a prison cell contemplating the fresh challenges he faces in 2024.
The 35-year-old approached a house on the outskirts of Newcastle on the evening of September 30, 2018, which ultimately led to him spending multiple years away behind bars.
This holiday period he will sit in his cell at Geoffrey Pearce Correctional Centre, a minimum-security facility at Berkshire Park in Sydney’s west.
It comes after he was convicted of the sexual assault of a woman at her home on NRL grand final night in 2018.
Now referred to as prisoner 661736, Hayne spends his days isolated in a 3m by 4m cell reading his Bible or walking outside.
The former Dally M winner’s life is a far cry from what life was like as a famous footballer who filled stadiums both in Australia and the US.
And come 2024, Hayne will face some new challenges – including a possible appeal of the verdict and a civil case brought by his victim in the NSW Supreme Court.
Hayne was found guilty of sexually assaulting the woman without her consent by a jury of six men and six women following six days of deliberation after the 11-day NSW District Court trial.
Before the jury was empanelled on March 13, Crown prosecutor John Sfinas and defence barrister Margaret Cunneen SC underwent four days of pre-trial argument before Judge Graham Turnbull.
During that time the court was told Hayne’s victim is suing him in the NSW Supreme Court for damages for her injuries.
It is understood she is seeking more than $750,000, as that is where the threshold for civil cases in the Supreme Court begins.
The civil claim was filed on August 4, 2021, after Hayne was convicted in his second trial.
However, it was put on pause and a non-publication order was made during the 2023 trial, but the jury was told the Statement of Claim had the same concerns as the criminal proceedings.
At the trial in March, Ms Cunneen told the jury the victim “tried to hide” the compensation claims.
The woman, who cannot be named because of legal reasons, had told a friend in the days after the assault that she “didn’t want any money”.
Ms Cunneen, in her closing arguments at trial, told the jury the woman did not want to go to police initially because “she knew no crime had been committed”.
“But this train, this accelerating train that starts when someone gets wind of an allegation of sexual assault is very hard to get off. It’s very hard to change your mind and say, ‘Oh well, I was wrong about that’,” Ms Cunneen said in March.
“The accelerating train has continued to a civil claim … and (the woman) in this court sought to hide behind solicitors (when questioned) when the fact of the matter is that the complaints in that civil claim are wrong.”
During pre-trial argument, Judge Turnbull told the court on the day of the appeal for Hayne’s previous trial, November 29, 2021, the victim had been watching the proceedings via AVL.
After seeing texts from a man she was talking to on the same day as Hayne were used in the appeal, the court was told the woman angrily went to the man’s apartment.
The court was told the victim banged on the door and said: “You f***ed my appeal”.
The police were called and the court was told the woman said to a police officer: “If those messages get out, I’m f***ed and he will get off.”
At the time Ms Cunneen made the argument when the woman said “I’m f***ed” she was alluding to her civil claim as well as Hayne’s possible acquittal.
Following his conviction by the jury, both Hayne and Ms Cunneen indicated outside court they would be appealing the verdict.
Moments after learning his fate and walking from the court hand-in-hand with wife Amellia Bonnici, Hayne held back tears as he told media he “keeps standing for the truth”.
When asked if he maintained his innocence, he said “100 per cent”.
“I never lied to police, I never deleted evidence, I never hid witnesses. Do the maths,” Hayne said at the time and indicated he would appeal.
When asked if he thought he had a fair trial, he refused to comment.
“Did I lie? Did I lie? That’s factual evidence,” he said.
Lawyers representing Hayne have lodged the intention to appeal notice over the guilty verdict in the days following, meaning the appeal case is officially open.
It is not yet known when the appeal will be heard in the NSW Supreme Court.
The former Dally M winner drunkenly approached the front door of a Fletcher house at 9.07pm.
When he emerged less than an hour later, Hayne left a young woman in her room with blood on her bedspread and painful injuries.
The incident led to him being jailed for the second time.
Hayne was a household name, beginning his first-grade career with the Parramatta Eels in 2006.
But his popularity didn’t peak until 2014 when it was revealed he was leaving the NRL and months later signed on for the San Francisco 49ers in the NFL.
Hayne would only last one season, during which he was accused of leaving a US woman bleeding following an alleged sexual assault in December 2015.
The woman brought a civil case against Hayne – his first – in 2017 as there wasn’t enough evidence for criminal charges to be laid. Hayne settled for almost $100,000 in 2019.
Throughout his career, Hayne represented NSW in State of Origin 23 times while also playing 21 times for Australia and Fiji at Test level.
Now a household name for different reasons, Ms Cunneen told the court during Hayne’s sentence hearing he suffered an “extraordinary loss to a stellar rugby career”.
“In this case it was the loss of an extremely lucrative contract in circumstances which ensured he was publicly vilified for all of the period of the milestones which have occurred since the commission of the offences,” she said.
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