Silverwater Women’s Correctional Centre boss Simon Raper suspended over sexual harassment allegations

The head of a Sydney maximum security prison has been suspended amid allegations he sexually harassed a female prison officer.

Silverwater Correctional Complex. Picture: NCA NewsWire / James Gourley

The head of a Sydney maximum security prison has been suspended amid allegations he sexually harassed a female prison officer.

News Corp has confirmed Corrective Services NSW has launched an investigation into the allegations regarding prison boss Simon Raper at Silverwater Women’s Correctional Centre.

While it would not comment on the specifics of the internal case, a spokeswoman declared the department took a “zero-tolerance approach”.

“Corrective Services NSW has a zero-tolerance approach to sexual misconduct in the workplace – including allegations of sexual harassment among staff – and will take action to thoroughly investigate any claims,” she said.

She added “the vast majority” of staff “maintain the highest levels of professionalism”.

The governor of Silverwater Women's Correctional Facility Simon Raper.

“We encourage any staff member who is aware of misconduct in the workplace to report it to Professional Standards and Investigations or NSW Police,” she said.

“We expect all staff to maintain the highest levels of professionalism. The vast majority of our 10,000 staff uphold these standards and work tirelessly to keep the community safe.”

No criminal charges have been laid.

Mr Raper’s LinkedIn profile states that he has worked as the governor at Silverwater Women’s Prison since October 2021.

He had previously had stints as the general manager of Mid North Coast Correctional Centre at Kempsey and other facilities around NSW over a three-decade career in the sector.

Minister for Corrections Anoulack Chanthivong said: “We take a zero-tolerance approach to misconduct.

“The vast majority of Corrective Services staff do the right thing. We owe them the respect of holding every officer to the highest possible standard.”

It’s not the first time management at the facility have been drawn into negative headlines, with former Silverwater prison governor Tracey Margaret Mannix found guilty in April of common assault, after an inmate was found by staff self-harming in her cell on June 15, 2021.

Tracey Margaret Mannix.

The court heard the 56-year-old Mascot woman grabbed the 20-year-old inmate by the throat following a heated argument between the pair, which prosecutors claim breached legal limits on use of force in prisons.

Mannix was convicted and sentenced to a two-year community corrections order and was fined $700.

Regarded as the toughest women’s prison in Australia, Silverwater’s women’s section holds about 220 female inmates at the western Sydney complex.

The Silverwater facility also includes a maximum and a minimum-security prisons for men, which includes more than 900 inmates.

High profile prisoners at the women’s site over the years include Kathleen Folbigg, who was unconditionally pardoned earlier this year two decades after being found guilty of the murder of three of her children and the manslaughter of a fourth.

Her pardon in June came after the interim findings of a special inquiry into the case found there was “a reasonable possibility that three of the children died of natural causes”, while it was possible two others had died from a rare genetic mutation.

Katherine Knight, who was convicted of the murder of her partner John Price in 2000, is also currently imprisoned at the facility.

Knight’s grisly crime included stabbing her partner to death before skinning him and cooking parts of his body.

Originally published as Silverwater Women’s Correctional Centre boss Simon Raper suspended over sexual harassment allegations