- The lawsuit will be heard in the Supreme Court of New South Wales.
- It comes from the former NRL star’s rape accuser
- Hayne has always maintained his innocence.
Former NRL star Jarryd Hayne will fight a lawsuit brought by his rape accuser after he was cleared of criminal charges over her claims.
The woman’s lawyer, Gerard Gooden, told a brief hearing in the New South Wales Supreme Court on Wednesday that the parties had agreed a timetable for the matter to proceed.
“This has been suspended since last week to give the parties the opportunity to consider whether they wanted to negotiate an informal agreement,” he told the court.
“That has been rejected.”
Hayne was twice convicted of raping the woman at her Newcastle home on the night of the 2018 NRL Grand Final.
But a six-year legal battle ended in June when an appeals court overturned his latest convictions even though he had already served a lengthy prison sentence.
Prosecutors later announced they would no longer pursue criminal charges against the 36-year-old former rugby league fullback, allowing the civil case dating back to 2021 to continue.
In April 2023, a jury in Hayne’s third trial found him guilty of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent and he was sentenced to a maximum of four years and nine months in prison.
Former NRL star Jarryd Hayne will fight a lawsuit brought by his former rape accuser after he was cleared of criminal charges over her claims.
Hayne has always maintained his innocence, convinced that the sexual encounter in 2018 was consensual.
But the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal quashed Hayne’s convictions on the grounds that a judge erred in not allowing the complainant to be questioned further at trial.
During Hayne’s trials, courts 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 his home.
Hayne’s overturned convictions followed a hung jury at his first trial in 2020 and an earlier appeal that overturned the 2021 guilty verdict from his second trial.
He has always maintained his innocence, convinced that the sexual encounter was consensual.
Hayne played 11 games for Australia and 23 games for the New South Wales State of Origin team in a career that also included a stint with the San Francisco 49ers in the NFL.
The 33-year-old non-compliant athlete was charged with sexual assault in another incident in 2015 when he played in the National Football League for the San Francisco 49ers.
The woman, known only as JV, alleged that Hayne drove her to his home after meeting her at a California bar and raped her.
The case was eventually settled for nearly $100,000.