Jarryd Hayne has had his bail revoked and sent directly to jail as he waits to learn the length of his sentence after being convicted of sexually assaulting a woman.
He faces proceedings on May 8 where he will learn his prison term for assaulting a woman at her Newcastle home in September 2018.
The former Parramatta Eels player had been on conditional bail ahead of facing sentence proceedings in less than four weeks.
However, Fox Sports reports that the Director of Public Prosecutions made a Supreme Court detention application to send him directly and immediately to jail.
Hayne’s legal team attempted to fight the application on Friday (March 14) morning.
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However, Justice Richard Button agreed to the application and ordered the former Dally M winner to be taken into custody immediately.
The publication reports that Hayne had been emotionless throughout much of the almost three-hour hearing but became emotional as he hugged his wife Amelia Bonnici.
The decision to place Hayne directly in jail is commonplace under NSW law, which states that a person found guilty of an offence and will be sentenced is to be refused bail.
That is unless they can establish exceptional circumstances.
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Hayne’s legal team argued that the former fullback was ‘too high-profile to be sent to prison in the midst of the major media coverage.
On Friday, his barrister Margeret Cunneeen SC argued that the 35-year-old should remain on bail as he would face ‘oppressive’ conditions if he were placed in protective custody.
She said, via Fox Sports: “It’s 25 days in isolation when it’s not required, it’s not called for.
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Cunneen argued that it was an ‘exceptional case’ due to the ‘toxic’ abuse Hayne and his wife has suffered on social media.
She said: “There is something about this case that .. has incited the most toxic responses on social media that are out of proportion to the circumstances of this case.”
She argued that the attention attracted to the case was more akin to a high-profile murder rather than the gravity of the two sexual offences.
Hayne spent nine months in jail last year before he had his previous conviction appealed.
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He is planning to again appeal his latest conviction and continues to maintain his innocence.
Topics: Australia, NRL, Rugby League
Jayden Collins