Groom-to-be and bucks party attendees learn fate after gang rape trial
Three men have learnt their fates after they were accused of gang raping three teenage girls during a bucks party weekend.
WARNING: Graphic details
Three men have been found guilty of gang raping three teenagers at an Airbnb during a bucks party weekend.
Andrew David, 30, and brothers Maurice Hawell, 30, and Marius Hawell, 22, stood trial after pleading not guilty to counts of aggravated sexual assault in company, attempting to commit aggravated sexual assault in company and aggravated sexual touching.
The trio were accused of gang raping three teenagers at an Airbnb in Newcastle in the NSW Hunter that they had rented in February 2022 to celebrate a bucks party for groom-to-be Maurice.
Prosecutors claimed the men sexually assaulted two 18-year-old women on the Friday night before attacking a 19-year-old woman on the following night.
Maurice and David maintained that all sexual activity was consensual, while Marius claimed he did not participate in any of the sexual incidents during the bucks weekend.
All three men faced a weeks-long trial in the NSW District Court over the allegations they were involved in a joint criminal enterprise that sought to engage in group sex with or without consent.
On Monday, the jury of eight men and four women found the men guilty of gang raping three teenagers over two nights.
However, they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict on two counts and will continue to deliberate.
A group of female supporters broke down in tears and sobbed loudly as the Hawell brothers and David were found guilty of rape.
The 18-year-old women told the court they were raped when they went into a bedroom to retrieve their phones as they prepared to leave the Airbnb on Friday night.
One of the teens said she was forced to engage in penetrative sex with a man she couldn’t see while another man knelt on her arms and thrust his penis into her mouth.
At the same time as her friend was pinned to the bed beside her, the other 18-year-old said she was held down and stripped naked by a “swarm” of men.
She described trying to bat away a man’s penis as he tried to put it in her mouth, while another man tried to place her free hand on his penis.
The teen said she was then vaginally and anally raped simultaneously, but she was unable to identify any of the men attacking her because the room was so dark.
Maurice and David claimed the teens agreed to have group sex and gave no indication they were not consenting throughout the acts or afterwards.
The defence pointed out one of the teens had described the events as an “orgy” and the other had characterised it as “funny” in texts sent after the night.
Maurice’s lawyer Richard Pontello SC said the descriptions were “hardly consistent” with allegations of rape.
Meanwhile Marius argued he didn’t participate in the alleged gang rape and wasn’t even in the room at the time.
The court was told he had left the pub minutes after buying a drink in his “haste” to return to the Airbnb after hearing there were girls there.
Although the 18-year-olds could not see their assailants because the room was dark, the jurors accepted the Hawell brothers and David were responsible for the sexual assaults.
They found each man guilty of gang raping the first 18-year-old.
The jury also found the men guilty of three of the sexual assault offences against the second teen, but they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict about the allegation of anal rape.
The Hawell brothers and David are also guilty of raping a 19-year-old woman on the following night inside a dark room at the Airbnb, the jury ruled.
The court was told Maurice had approached the teen on the street and used a fake name as he persuaded her to come back to the rented Airbnb for pre-drinks.
Instead of giving her a drink, he ushered her into a bedroom.
Maurice told the court the teen had agreed to have sex with him before they entered the Airbnb, which Mr Evans slammed as “fanciful” and “not credible”.
The 19-year-old said he pushed her onto a bed and they kissed before he asked if she wanted to have a threesome with him and David.
“What? No,” she recounted telling him.
Despite her refusal, the teen said David pinned her to the bed by kneeling on her shoulders before he forced his penis into her mouth while Maurice raped her.
She told the court she tried to keep her legs closed but he had forced them open before a third man entered the room.
The jury accepted Marius entered the room and used his phone’s flashlight as the men took turns sexually assaulting the 19-year-old.
The prosecution argued he encouraged and was complicit in the teen’s sexual assault after he entered the room and provided light.
His lawyer Scott Corrish maintained his client had not been in the room and had not engaged in any sexual activity with the 19-year-old.
“No person has actually pointed the finger and said (Marius) did any criminal sexual act or even said that he was seen with his shoes and socks off,” he said.
The court heard the teen was concerned Marius was filming the gang rape.
Mr Pontello suggested she had made the sexual assault complaint out of fear she had been filmed and the video would be uploaded to the internet.
The court was told the 19-year-old put her pants on backwards in her haste to leave the apartment after the gang rape and she was “sobbing”.
In returning guilty verdicts in nine of the 11 charges, the jury determined the men had engaged in a joint criminal enterprise with a mindset to seek out group sex with or without consent.
The jury were instructed to retire to consider whether they could reach unanimous verdicts for the charge of attempted sexual touching against Maurice and the charge of aggravated sexual assault in company against all three men.
The charge against Maurice relates to an allegation he had tried to touch one of the 18-year-olds near her groin while she was lying in bed after consensual sex with another bucks party attendee on Friday night.
“I don’t, like, want that,” she recalled telling the groom-to-be.
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