Jarryd Hayne’s lawyer has been embroiled in a furious row on LinkedIn where she launched an extraordinary attack on his rape accuser and defended the rugby league star’s character.
Margaret Cunneen SC shared a celebratory image of Hayne, 36, with his wife Amellia Bonnici and lawyer Lauren McDougall on LinkedIn last week, with the group posing in front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
In her caption, Ms Cunneen hailed “justice at last” – after the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal quashed his rape conviction – and described the freed former Parramatta Eels star as a “good and decent man”.
But this did not go down well with some in Ms Cunneen’s professional network, and another senior lawyer, former barrister Michael McDonald, furiously objected to the veteran barrister’s characterisation of Hayne.
Mr McDonald said he was pleased that Hayne’s appeal “had been accepted and hoped that his persecution was finally over”.
But he added: “With all due respect, ‘good and decent’ men do not engage in the type of conduct that Jarryd Hayne engaged in.”
Ms Cunneen replied: “You don’t know what happened.”
He went on to claim that the footballer’s trousers were not undone during his unfortunate encounter with his accuser in New Lambton, Newcastle, in 2018.
Sydney barrister Margaret Cunneen SC shared this image of Jarryd Hayne, his wife Amellia Bonnici (centre) and barrister Lauren McDougall last week. Her description of the former footballer as a “good and decent man” has angered people.
Hayne (above, with wife Amellia) faced three rape trials and 23 months in jail until he was released last month when his most recent convictions were quashed.
Mr McDonald was referring to Hayne’s conduct on the night that resulted in him being charged with rape.
Hayne’s criminal case alleges he paid a taxi driver $550 to wait 46 minutes while he went into a house to have sex with a young woman.
The encounter led to three rape trials, two convictions and 23 months in prison. Both convictions were eventually overturned, the latest last month.
One of the three judges on the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal who heard Hayne’s appeal, Justice Deborah Sweeney, opposed putting the case before another jury, arguing that a fourth trial “would not be in the interests of justice.”
The prosecution decided not to hold a fourth trial on June 25.
Ms Cunneen specifically thanked Judge Sweeney in her photo and said Hayne was celebrating “justice at last”.
But with McDonald he took a different tone: “Haven’t you seen her nails, sharper than a bishop’s mitre? Two years in total? Please.”
During Hayne’s trials, it was alleged that the woman was left bleeding after the sexual encounter, and when she complained via text that she was “in a lot of pain”, Hayne replied: “Go to the doctor tomorrow.”
Mr McDonald then replied: “My comment is in two sentences, let me reverse the order.”
‘To be clear, his prosecution has been an absolute farce and, as in the case of the late Cardinal Pell, he was confident that he would ultimately be acquitted on appeal.
‘However, in my humble opinion, a ‘good and decent man’ – especially one who is married and a father – would not have placed himself and his relationship with his wife and children in the position that Jarryd did.’
Hayne was not married to Amellia Bonnici in September 2018 when the 26-year-old woman who accused him of rape in Newcastle claimed she had been sexually assaulted. However, they were already a couple.
Amellia Bonnici married Jarryd Hayne in a ceremony in front of 50 family and friends, including former NRL teammates, on Australia Day 2021
While most commenters on the Linkedin post shared words of support for Ms Cunneen, a second LinkedIn user was also upset by the description of Hayne as “good and decent”.
“While I have a lot of respect for you Margaret, I do think Jarryd is guilty in a sense. He paid a girl in America for similar things and you shouldn’t be punished twice for this,” posted professional Sydney Trains cleaner James Hanrahan.
Mr Hanrahan was referring to a civil suit brought by an American plaintiff for rape against Hayne in California, which was settled in 2019 for a payment of just under $100,000.
The young American, identified only as JV, had accused Hayne of sexually assaulting her in San Jose in 2015 during her time in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers.
JV claimed she was drunk at the time of the alleged incident and that she was a Christian and a virgin and was saving herself for marriage.
Ms Cunneen also responded to that post: “He settled a ridiculous lawsuit to save resources in a CIVIL case.”
“The prosecutors knew that was baseless. Do you even understand that he didn’t even take his pants down in the Newcastle case?”
The LinkedIn dispute between Ms. Cunneen and Mr. McDonald is up
Hayne and his wife, Ms Bonnici, reportedly met through Instagram in early 2016 when he was playing for the Gold Coast Titans.
A few weeks later, Ms. Bonnici became pregnant with the couple’s first child, daughter Beliviah Ivy.
Hayne had recently returned from his stint in the United States with the 49ers and had signed a million-dollar-a-year contract with the Gold Coast Titans.
The couple got engaged in late 2020 and married in front of 50 family and friends, including former NRL teammates, on Australia Day the following year.
Daily Mail Australia was forced to blur the image of Ms Bonnici taken by Cunneen due to an extraordinary court order banning the publication of any images of Hayne’s wife after May 12, 2023.
The unusual court order has no expiration date.
Judge Graham Turnbull made the suppression order on the day he sentenced Hayne to a minimum of three years in jail after his third trial in the New South Wales District Court.
The order did not include an explanation of why it was made, but Judge Turnbull had heard evidence that Ms Bonnici had particular “health conditions” and that her children had previously been photographed by the media.