Jarryd Hayne’s outspoken lawyer has sparked controversy again just days after calling the fallen football star “a good and decent man”, this time describing rape allegations against him and another man as “petty nonsense”.
The 36-year-old was released from prison on June 12 after his convictions were quashed, having spent more than a year behind bars after a jury in April 2023 found him guilty of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent.
The decision by the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal ended a six-year saga that saw the two-time Dally M winner face three trials after being accused of raping a woman in Newcastle at the 2018 NRL grand final.
This week Margaret Cunneen SC was embroiled in a row over Hayne following a LinkedIn post in which she praised his character. Now a second post has emerged, which has since been deleted, in which Cunneen again praises Hayne and a second man, who is accused of rape and has not yet been brought to trial.
The second man cannot be identified for legal reasons. It is not clear whether he is also a client of Cunneen.
She shared a photo of Hayne and the other man drinking Veuve Clicquot champagne at Sydney’s swanky Opera Bar, alongside a caption hailing the two as “geniuses” and “loving” parents.
“There are no greater geniuses, each in his own field, and thoroughly decent men, and dear dads – (the second man) and Jarryd Hayne – both falsely accused of nonsense and both cruelly imprisoned in the meantime,” Ms Cunneen wrote.
“We aim to be a civilized society,” he concluded.
Jarryd Hayne’s lawyer has sparked controversy again just days after calling the fallen football star “a good and decent man”, this time describing the rape allegations against him as “unimportant nonsense”. She posted this image on LinkedIn of Hayne and another accused rape suspect (left), who cannot be named for legal reasons, along with a provocative caption.
The man pictured alongside Hayne in the Opera Bar photo has been charged with multiple sexual assaults on young women, along with other charges, which are still before the courts.
Daily Mail Australia asked Cunneen if she will be legal counsel for the defendants at upcoming hearings and what she meant by describing the rape charges as “petty nonsense”.
The photo, which appeared on Cunneen’s LinkedIn account last weekend, appears to have been taken on the night Hayne was celebrating being cleared of all rape allegations..
Ms Cunneen had marked the joyous occasion with another LinkedIn post in which she praised the former Parramatta Eels star as “a good and decent man”, prompting some dissent among her social media followers..
Indeed, another senior lawyer, former barrister Michael McDonald, furiously objected to Ms Cunneen’s glowing 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.
Another senior lawyer furiously objected to Ms Cunneen’s (left) glowing characterisation of Hayne in this earlier LinkedIn post in which she called him a “good and decent man”.
The LinkedIn dispute between Ms Cunneen and former lawyer Michael McDonald is seen above
Mr McDonald was referring to Hayne’s conduct on the night that resulted in him being charged with rape.
Hayne’s criminal case was alleging that 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.”
In response to Ms Cunneen’s objection to his comment, Mr McDonald replied: ‘My comment is in two sentences, let me reverse their 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 or 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.
Hayne (pictured with his wife Amellia) faced three rape trials and 23 months in jail until he was released last month when his most recent convictions were quashed.
Ms Bonnici married 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”.
“As much as I respect you Margaret,” wrote Sydney Trains professional cleaner James Hanrahan, “he paid a girl in (the US).”
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 woman, identified only as JV, had accused Hayne of sexually assaulting her in San Jose in 2015 during his 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,” she wrote.
“The prosecutors knew that was baseless. Do you even understand that he didn’t even take his pants down in the Newcastle case?”
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 with the 49ers and 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 Ms Cunneen’s image of Ms Bonnici due to an extraordinary court order banning the publication of any images of Hayne’s wife taken 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.
