The former NRL star Jarryd Hayne was guilty of bad sex, not rape, a court has been told.
“To be frank, his sexual prowess turned out to be terrible,” the defence barrister Phillip Boulten SC told a Newcastle district court jury on Thursday during Hayne’s rape trial.
Hayne has previously told the court he had been giving the complainant oral sex with her consent in her bedroom to please her on the night of the 2018 NRL grand final when he must have accidentally cut her vagina with his finger.
Boulten said when the woman started bleeding, it was not a big step for her to claim Hayne had been “nasty, uncaring and forcing me into it”.
“Well, it was bad sex,” the defence barrister said in his closing address.
He said if there had been no blood, it was unlikely any complaint of sexual assault would have been made.
“[The woman] was upset about her injuries and that’s why we’re really all here, you might think,” Boulten added.
He said Hayne had stuck solidly to his version of events in his evidence, claiming the woman had never said “no” or “stop”, and the jury must be in a state of uncertainty about his guilt.
The defence barrister said Hayne was not asking for special treatment, nor to be treated as “some kind of hero”.
He urged the jury not to treat Hayne any differently because he was a good footballer or because they felt sad for the complainant.
The crown alleges that Hayne arrived drunk at the woman’s house on the outskirts of Newcastle about 9pm on 30 September 2018 and stayed for about 45 minutes, committed two sex acts on her without her consent and caused two separate injuries to her genitalia before leaving.
The woman said when Hayne had tried to kiss and touch her she told him “no” and “stop”, he pushed her face down into the pillow, ripped off her trousers and attacked her.
One of the key issues at trial, according to the defence, are the messages the woman sent after the alleged rape to a female lawyer in Newcastle she had been following on Instagram.
The woman, now aged 28, had never met the lawyer but mentioned to her earlier in the day that she was planning to meet up with Hayne.
The lawyer, whose statement was read to the court, warned the woman all footballers were sleazy, including her ex who had been a Bulldogs player.
She said footballers were used to getting what they wanted, all Hayne would want was sex and she urged the woman to remember her worth.
After the alleged rape, the woman sent Instagram messages to the lawyer telling her she was right.
The woman said Hayne had had a taxi waiting for him outside the house, performed oral sex on her and left. She said she felt like an idiot. She did not mention anything to the lawyer about the alleged rape.
The crown prosecutor Brian Costello said the reason the woman had not told the lawyer about the alleged rape was because she didn’t really know her.
Costello said the woman had only reluctantly told her mother what happened the following day and it took about a month before she confided in her sister.
The woman sent messages to her best friend on the night detailing what Hayne had allegedly done to her and sent her photographs of the blood on her bed and the injuries to her vagina.
She said she thought Hayne had bitten her vagina and she felt violated.
The jury has retired to consider its verdict.