‘Can’t handle both of us’: Words before alleged rape on Newcastle bucks party

A court has heard shock details of an alleged gang rape during a bucks party at an Airbnb after a woman was approached on the street.

A man accused of three gang rapes during a bucks party at an Airbnb allegedly told one woman “I don’t think you can’t handle the both of us”, a court has heard.

The woman, who news.com.au will call Ms C for legal reasons, gave evidence before the NSW District Court on Thursday of feeling like she needed to go along with the alleged assault.

Brothers Maurice and Marius Hawell, and Andrew David, are on trial over the alleged sexual assaults of three women during the February 2022 trip to the Hunter.

The court has heard they were among nine Sydney men staying at an Airbnb on Parry St, Newcastle West, where the incidents took place on February 25 and 26.

The Hawells and David, 30, have pleaded not guilty to offences including aggravated sexual assault in company, claiming all sex was consensual and denying certain acts took place.

Maurice Hawell denies the allegations. Picture: Paul Brescia

Andrew David has pleaded not guilty.

Ms C, the court heard, had left the Cambridge Hotel when she claims to have been approached and “pestered” on the street by a man called “Jonathan” – who Maurice Hawell accepts was him – and asked to join his “predrinks” on February 26.

She alleges he led her into the unit, then straight into a bedroom where he pushed her onto a bed, removed her clothes and began kissing her.

It is alleged David at some point appeared next to the bed and said “threesome?” before both men started to sexually assault the 19-year-old despite her replying: “What? No.”

Ms C was cross examined by the men’s barristers on Thursday about what happened inside the room, with Mr David’s silk Sharyn Hall SC asking if she had said “I don’t want to do this”.

The complainant agreed she did not kick up at the men, tell them to stop and that she felt she needed to “pretend to want to be involved”.

The Parry St rental where the incidents took place.

Ms C denied having a pre-sex conversation with the men on the bed about why they were in Newcastle, what they did for work and where they had gone for dinner that night.

She did not recall the man she knew as Jonathan saying “I don’t think you can handle the both of us” and denied replying “I can”.

Ms C admitted she hid her underpants behind a box outside the unit but said that was not because she was embarrassed about someone seeing her holding them after “agreeing to sex in the apartment”.

The court heard Ms C called a housemate soon after, who encouraged her to phone triple-0.

Crown prosecutor Craig Evans asked Ms C why she felt she had to go along with the alleged assault.

“I just felt I didn’t want anything bad to happen,” she said.

Dr Katherine Hagar, who examined Ms C the day after the alleged rape, also gave evidence of what the complainant told her at John Hunter Hospital.

Dr Hagar said the woman reported “feeling threatened and she felt she needed to go with” Maurice Hawell before being taken into the bedroom.

“(Ms C) reports the lights were turned off and on several times and she could not always see who was in the room,” her medical notes stated.

At one point Ms C reported noticing a phone light and asked “are you filming?”, before one man replied, “don’t worry about it”, the court heard.

Ms C had been with out friends at the Cambridge Hotel. Picture: Google Maps.

Ms C’s housemate told the court he ran from their home to meet her after she made a tearful phone call to him.

“She said she’d been out at the Cambridge and had been pulled into an apartment by a man,” he said.

“I was obviously very concerned to get to her as quickly as I could.”

They met near the King St hotel and once he shepherded her home, the court heard Ms C told the housemate about some of the sexual acts the men had performed on her.

“I’d asked her if she was able to get out of where she was before anything bad happened,” he told the court.

“She replied, ‘no’.”

The court heard Ms C had earlier messaged a group chat with the words “I’m bowing kidnapped”, which has been explained as a typo for “I’m being kidnapped”.

The housemate was asked why he replied “lol wut” to that message.

“I would have said that because it doesn’t quite make sense,” he explained.

The Crown alleges 22-year-old Marius Hawell, the younger brother of Maurice, also entered the room but during the alleged assault of Ms C but did not take part in the sexual activity.

Ms C maintained that “at least three” men were in the room before the alleged assault ended.

Two other women have previously told the trial they were raped in a dark bedroom by multiple men after returning to the unit for consensual sex with Maurice Hawell, 30, and another man named “Matt” – who is not accused of wrongdoing.

Maurice Hawell and David are facing eight charges, and Marius Hawell is charged with six offences.

The trial before Judge Gina O’Rourke continues.