Jarryd Hayne has been accused of raping a woman while he was in the U.S. trying to catch hold with the San Francisco 49ers.
Hayne has denied the allegations, unequivocally and vehemently.
Here is the thing.
The accuser gets to remain anonymous, which just seems plain wrong.
In the U.S. there is a document called the Bill of Rights. One of the rights in that document, which is an addendum to the U.S. Constitution, is the right to be confronted and to confront the witnesses against him/her. It is the Sixth Amendment.
Nowadays, anyone can say anything, true or otherwise, with or without actual evidence, with no repercussions.
The anonymous woman accusing Hayne has filed a civil lawsuit over a year after the Santa Clara County Court rejected the criminal case due to a lack of evidence.
The civil suit enters claims of sexual battery, fender violence, infliction of emotional distress and negligence.
An attorney representing Hayne, Ramy Qutami of the Marcus Law Firm, issued a statement for Hayne.
“Mr. Hayne has not been served with any proceedings or formal complaint relating to the incident,” the statement said.
“Mr. Hayne previously addressed a complaint made to the District Attorney’s office in the County of Santa Clara, California in 2016 and the District Attorney did not proceed any further with the matter due to insufficient evidence to substantiate the allegations. Mr. Hayne provided all reasonable assistance to the District Attorney with that investigation.”
We have not always been huge Hayne advocates; in fact, Hayne has often been the brunt of gibes directed at him by us.
Then again, we have never been rich or famous, so no one has anything to gain by accusing us.
When we were lads, we used to brag of our exploits, even though we were generally fabricating. The subjects of our fabrications were the unequivocal and vehement deniers in those cases.
Times change, do they not?
While we do not advocate anyone treating anyone disrespectfully, let alone subject them to sexual battery, gender violence, infliction of emotional distress and negligence, but at some point, the burden of proof was switched from the accuser to the accused.