Lady Justice podcast: What happened to Mick Hawi, Skaf brothers and other killers in jail

Former corrections officer Katrina Schyndel has revealed hair-raising stories about Comancheros bikie Mick Hawi, the Skaf brothers and the Butcher of Bega. Listen to the podcast.

One of the Skaf brothers is on his hands and knees.

Freshly apprehended after appalling Australians with his vile series of gang rapes, Mohammed Skaf is whispering to the ‘devil under the floor’ of his prison cell, in the mental health unit of Sydney’s Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre (MRRC).

Strutting his stuff in a different part of the jail, is the charismatic leader of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle group, Mick Hawi. The only problem is: he’s shrinking.

It’s a common phenomenon jokingly referred to as ‘shrinking bikie syndrome’ and it happens when beefcakes from the outside end up on the inside, minus their arsenal of bodybuilding tricks.

However, there’s no doubt he’d still be able to take out the kid killers and paedophiles down the hall.

That’s why criminals like Blakeley Ward, who starved his autistic daughter to death, and disgraced obstetrician-gynaecologist Graeme Reeves, who earned the nickname ‘the Butcher of Bega’, for mutilating the genitalia of his patients, need to be kept separately.

They’ve got their own accommodation, which they share with Robert Smith, the stepfather of murdered six-year-old Kiesha Abrahams, who helped burn her body before appearing on TV to make a teary appeal for her return.

This “putrid” neighbourhood was the workplace of former corrections officer, Katrina Schyndel, who shares her hair-raising stories of life in the justice system in episode four of News Corp’s podcast Lady Justice.

Former prison officer Katrina Schyndel has explored the darkest and the most unusual crevices of the correctional system. Picture: David Swift

Listen to the next episode of the podcast below:

“Hawi was very polite. No problem at all to manage,” Ms Schyndel, 50, said.

“They [some prisoners] do come in however very big and buff because they’ve been on the ‘roids outside and they’re huge guys and quite sort of imposing.

“But when they can’t get access to their ‘roids and their gyms and their facilities that they use to buff themselves up, they shrink pretty quickly.”

Ms Schyndel spent 13 years working in mens’ prisons and juvenile justice centres across NSW but MRRC was unique because it is the first port prisoners are placed after being taken into custody – and the energy is wild.

Many inmates are still feeling the effects of drugs or alcohol, experiencing withdrawals, are not yet appropriately medicated, and all have their futures hanging in the balance as they await sentencing.

Convicted rapist Mohammed Skaf.

Deceased Comanchero president Mick Hawi. Picture: Richard Dobson

It was here she met Skaf, taken into custody on charges relating to a series of gang rapes, which he perpetrated with a group led by his brother Bilal Skaf, in the lead-up to the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Targeting European Australian schoolgirls, Mohammed helped procure teenage victims for the gang of Lebanese Muslim Australian men, who referred to the girls as “Aussie pigs” and the rapes as “doing it Leb style”.

But by the time Ms Schyndel saw him, he appeared to be gravely unwell.

“Mohammed was in the mental health unit because he had psychosis. So he’s speaking in tongues. And he was speaking to the devil under the floor,” she said.

However, Ms Schyndel is sceptical he may have been feigning illness for a favourable court outcome.

Convicted rapist Bilal Skaf.

Graeme Reeves outside Downing Centre Court in Sydney. Picture: AAP

“He and his brother managed to quite lucidly co-ordinate the rapes of those girls across western Sydney,” she said.

Skaf was released from prison in October, 2021, after serving more than two decades of his 23-year sentence.

Meanwhile, Ms Schyndel described the sense of entitlement ‘Butcher of Bega’ Reeves brought with him to the compound.

Sentenced to prison time for indecently assaulting patients and removing one woman’s genitalia without consent, she said he thought he was above the crowd.

“I remember when he first came in – and a lot of paedophiles do this too – they think because they’re white collar and they’re wealthy that they’re not as bad as the rest of the crims … but they’re probably worse,” Ms Schyndel said.

“He used to sit in his cell all by himself. Obviously, he didn’t want to associate with plebs. You know, he was too good for that.”

Of course, the other crooks thought they’d bring him down a notch.

“They made up a massive big cardboard sign and they’d written ‘Butcher Shop’ on it, and hung it on his cell door … so that gave me a laugh.”

To listen to episode four of lady justice, go to ladyjusticepodcast.com.au

Originally published as Lady Justice podcast: What happened to Mick Hawi, Skaf brothers and other killers in jail