Featured Image Credit: NRL/Supplied. @7NewsSydney
Topics: Australia, NRL, Rugby League
Jayden Collins
Jarryd Hayne has been sentenced to four years and nine months in prison after being convicted of sexually assaulting a Newcastle woman.
The former Dally M medalist was charged with the rape of a woman at her Newcastle home on the night of the 2018 Grand Final.
He will be eligible for parole in just under two years, as per the ABC.
The former Eels player has spent the last four weeks in jail after he was taken into custody during a Supreme Court bail hearing on April 14.
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He appeared via audiovisual link at Sydney's Downing Centre District Court from Silverwater Correctional Complex where he was wearing his prison greens.
Judge Graham Turnball told the court that the former rugby league player’s offence was ‘below mid-range’ and that he had a ‘seemingly low risk of reoffending’.
His sentence amounts to four years and nine months, however, was backdated to July 2, 2022, to account for the previous nine months that Hayne spent in custody.
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According to the ABC, he will now be eligible for release on May 6, 2025.
Judge Turnball told the court that Hayne was a ‘completely different man’ to the one who had committed the offences.
He said, as per Fox Sports: “People are going to be left to suffer as a result of him being taken from them.
“He is going to be doing his time in a difficult environment.”
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His wife was not present at the sentencing hearing.
Hayne could be heard saying ‘say no more’ before his video link ended once the verdict was passed down.
He will be moved to a facility where he will be around other high-profile prisoners as he will be classified as a prisoner in need of protection.
It comes after five years, three trials, and the second time he had been found guilty.
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The jury accepted the woman’s version of events where she repeatedly told the former Eels star ‘no’ and ‘stop’.
A victim impact statement was read to the court by Crown by John Sfinas on behalf of the victim during the sentence hearing.
The statement read, as per Fox Sports: “I still don’t know how to put any of this into words.
“From the 30th of September 2018, my life has been launched into what feels like a never-ending nightmare.”
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The statement later noted: “In September it will be five years since this has happened. I was a 26-year-old with the world at her feet, now I am nearly 31 and haven’t been able to finish uni.
“I am stronger, I am wiser, but I am damaged and I won’t ever be the same person.”