The wife of disgraced footy star Jarryd Hayne has broken down and wept as she addressed a court hearing into whether he should be jailed immediately for raping a woman four-and-a-half years ago.
Hayne, 35, arrived at court on Thursday morning, hiding his face behind sunglasses, after a jury found him guilty earlier this week of two sexual assault charges against a woman in Newcastle in September 2018.
Hayne, dressed in chinos, a blazer and a tie, was flanked by his wife Amellia Bonnici upon arriving at Sydney’s Downing Centre court.
Crown Prosecutor John Sfinas pushed for Hayne to be locked up immediately before NSW District Court Judge Graham Turnbull, prompting Ms Bonnici to be called to address the court directly.
Ms Bonnici told the court that she and Hayne were married in 2021 and broke down when she was asked if they had three children. ‘Yes we do,’ she said, sobbing.
When asked for the reasons why her husband should not be jailed, Ms Bonnici said: ‘I can’t even put that into words.’ A statement by her was filed to the court by Hayne’s lawyer, Margaret Cunneen SC.
Hayne has been out on bail since he was found guilty of two counts of rape by a jury on Tuesday.
His wife’s tears are unlikely to sway Judge Turnbull from sending Hayne to prison, with the judge telling the court that bail ‘must’ be refused when an accused person is due to be sentenced to full-time custody.
Jarryd Hayne and wife Amellia Bonnici arrive at the NSW District Court where a judge heard an application from the Crown to jail the disgraced footy star, after he was found guilty of rape
Hayne hid his face behind sunglasses as he emerged from a car and was immediately confronted by a media pack
Ms Bonnici and Hayne were escorted into the Downing Centre court complex by several NSW Police officers
Ms Bonnici put her head on one hand as she sat in the witness box.
Judge Turnbull asked Ms Bonnici if her children had been photographed by media without her consent this week and she agreed. She said they were aged six, three and one.
Asked if they were aware of being photographed, Ms Bonnici said her oldest child was ‘beside herself this morning’.
She said that she may move to a country location if he is sentenced to full-time custody.
Mr Sfinas asked Ms Bonnici about what family support she would have with Hayne in jail. Looking blank-faced, she told him she had no support in Sydney.
She told Mr Sfinas that Hayne’s family didn’t live in Sydney but on the Central Coast – but that they were less supportive than her own family.
She said Hayne’s family had given her minimal support but agreed she had a strong relationship with his mother Jodie.
Ms Bonnici said her eldest child would have to change schools to a regional location should Hayne be locked up.
Hayne’s barrister Margaret Cunneen SC tendered an affidavit from Ms Bonnici.
Earlier in the hearing, Mr Sfinas made an application to detain Hayne, which the star’s lawyer opposed.
‘While further imprisonment is likely it is not necessarily inevitable,’ Ms Cunneen argued.
‘Mr Hayne has served nine months and nine days he has suffered the humiliation that that entails. That aspect of sentencing has in effect been satisfied.
‘He has been on bail since November 19, 2018 and there hasn’t been a single breach.’
She said his passport has been forfeited since that date and he had been required to live with his wife.
He had previously been sentenced to a five year and nine months maximum sentence with a non parole period of three years and eight months – before his conviction was thrown out on appeal.
However Judge Graham Turnbull said when an accused person will be sentenced to full time custodial prison bail ‘must be’ refused.
Jarryd Hayne arrives at court on Thursday for a detention application by the prosecution two days after his rape conviction
By 10am more than 20 Hayne supporters had packed into the court forcing the judge to put media into the jury stand to make room.
The NRL star has been on bail since a jury found him guilty on Tuesday afternoon of sexual intercourse without consent of a 26-year-old women at her Newcastle home in September 2018.
The Dally M-winner shook his head when the verdict was delivered and went over to hug his wife, who appeared inconsolable.
Immediately after the verdict, Hayne had tears in his eyes and said he was ‘devastated’ by the result, later protesting his innocence outside the Sydney court.
‘I’m going to keep standing for the truth,’ he said, adding he maintained his innocence ‘100 per cent’.
Hayne had pleaded not guilty to the charges and is facing a maximum sentence of 14 years behind bars.
Tuesday’s verdict marked the end of the third criminal trial against Hayne – the first was in Newcastle in 2020 and ended in a hung jury.
He was convicted at a second trial in March 2021 and sent to prison for nine months until he successfully appealed against the decision.
The third jury heard fresh evidence from a man the victim texted on the same day as the offence was committed. They found Hayne guilty of performing oral and digital sex on the woman without her consent.
Jurors were told the woman refused to consent to sex on the night of September 30, 2018, because the ex-Parramatta fullback had a taxi waiting outside.
Hayne had been in Newcastle for a two-day buck’s party and organised to pay a cab driver $550 to take him back to Sydney, where he was required to attend an event at midnight.
Jarryd Hayne (above with his wife Amellia Bonnici) faces jail after he was found guilty of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent
He decided to ‘pop in’ to the woman’s house on the way.
She gave him her address about 7.30pm and asked Hayne when he still hadn’t arrived an hour later: ‘Where are you fool?’
‘It was up in the air, best case scenario I would be having sex with her, worst case I would just get introduced and that was it,’ Hayne told the court in prerecorded evidence.
Both Hayne and the woman agree that the footballer tried to break the ice by asking to do a ‘singalong’ and playing songs off her laptop, with an Ed Sheeran cover of ‘Wonderwall’ first up.
Things turned sour when the impatient taxi driver knocked at the door asking for Hayne, who had told the cabbie he was just stopping in to ‘pick up a bag’.
The woman said when she heard the taxi beeping outside her bedroom window she resolved there was ‘no way’ she was going to consent to sex.
Hayne’s barrister Margaret Cunneen SC has indicated she will be launching an appeal against Hayne’s conviction on the grounds it was an unreasonable verdict because it did not reflect the evidence.
