What's next for Jarryd Hayne after NRL superstar's rape conviction was overturned

Jarryd Hayne secured his freedom from prison on Wednesday after his rape conviction was overturned in a landmark decision for the footy superstar.

Hayne, 36, was tried in May last year and was handed a jail term of four years and nine months for the alleged rape of a woman on the night of the NRL grand final in 2018.

The two-time Dally M winner has been through a six-year ordeal relating to this matter, comprising three criminal trials, two appeals and two stints behind bars.

On Wednesday afternoon he was granted bail and his lawyer Lauren MacDougall said: 'He's really, really looking forward to getting home to his family.'

But the prospect of a fourth trial still looms for Hayne as he awaits his next court date. 

Prosecutors need time to consider holding a fourth trial before returning to court on July 26 and MacDougall declined to comment about the prospect of another trial as she left court with her client on Wednesday. 

'Any decision about a possible retrial will be made in accordance with the prosecution guidelines,' a spokeswoman for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said in a statement.

The state's highest court quashed Hayne's convictions, ruling the trial judge erred by not allowing further cross-examination of the complainant over her communications with third parties regarding the night of the alleged sexual assault.

The appeal court ruled the judge did not properly direct the jury regarding allegations from Hayne's lawyers the complainant had lied about the contact, exacerbating the earlier error in not allowing her to respond to questions about it.

Hayne's third ground of appeal, arguing the now-quashed guilty verdicts were unsafe or unreasonable, was not upheld, despite convincing one judge.

'I am of the view there is a significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted,' Justice Deborah Sweeney said in the court's published reasons.

But she was overruled by Justices Stephen Rothman and Anthony Meagher.

Justice Meagher did not support any grounds of the appeal.

'I am comfortably of the opinion that it was open to the jury to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt (Hayne) was guilty,' he said.

Hayne was accused of raping a woman with his hands and mouth at her Newcastle home on the night of the 2018 NRL Grand Final.

Three separate criminal trials were told the woman, who cannot be identified, changed her mind about having sex with Hayne after realising he had a taxi waiting outside.

He was sentenced to four years and nine months in jail, but had already served some of that time before his earlier successful appeal.

Justice Rothman said there was good reason for no fourth trial, noting it was unlikely to occur before Hayne's three-year non-parole period expired in May 2025.

Justice Sweeney was of a similar view given the matter's history.

'To put (Hayne) on trial for a fourth time would not be in the interests of justice,' she said.

Hayne's barrister, Tim Game SC, told April's appeal hearing messages the woman sent to Hayne and others, deleted from her phone, amounted to deliberate concealment of evidence.

The ex-player's defence team argued the woman should have been cross-examined on why she allegedly told police, 'If those messages get out, I'm f***ed and he will get off'.

Judge Graham Turnbull, who oversaw Hayne's third trial in the NSW District Court, refused requests for the woman to be cross-examined further, saying her anticipated answers, and their ultimate absence, would not create any real unfairness.

But Justices Sweeney and Rothman ruled Hayne's lawyers should have been able to question the complainant further and the jury left to consider her evidence and credibility.

Hayne's quashed convictions followed a hung jury in his first trial in 2020 and a previous appeal overturning guilty verdicts from his second trial in 2021.

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