Former Australian Rugby League star and 49th San Francisco team member Jarid Hain on Monday overturned his sentence for sexual assault and awaits a new trial.
The 33-year-old – best known outside Australia for his short-lived attempt to break into the US NFL – was found guilty last year on two facts of sexual intercourse without consent in 2018.
He was sentenced to five years and nine months, but on Monday the Criminal Court of Appeals ruled to overturn the sentence and await a retrial.
His lawyers claimed that the jury had been given “wrong” instructions and there was inconsistency in the evidence, according to local reports.
The full reasons for this decision have not yet been published.
Former Parramatta star Eels Hane insisted during the trial that the sex was voluntary, but Judge Helen Syme disagreed, saying the woman involved said “no” several times.
Hane was the National Rugby League player of the year in 2009 and 2014, having played more than 20 home country matches that pitted New South Wales against Queensland.
He has played 12 times in matches with Australia and four times in Fiji, where his father comes from, and also played for Fiji in the rugby seven.
Hane tried to make a career in the NFL in 2015 as a kickback and run back, but had only fleeting success in a tough first season with the San Francisco 49ers.
He played eight times, making 79 yards and not scoring a single touchdown.
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