'Pack mentality': men jailed for buck's trip gang rapes

Two close mates who callously gang-raped young women over consecutive nights of a buck's weekend have been jailed for at least seven years. Sydney lawyer Maurice Hawell and Andrew David, both 30, preyed on the three women, who cannot be legally identified, over two consecutive nights in February 2022 after inviting them back to a rented Airbnb in Newcastle ahead of Hawell's wedding. The second night's victim arrived under the pretext of drinks only to be led into a bedroom and forcibly and repeatedly sexually assaulted over 10 to 15 minutes. Hawell and David both ignored her saying "no" to a threesome, the sentencing judge found as she detailed the grave offending. "Each offender acted as if she was an object ... not a young female person who deserved to be treated with dignity," NSW District Court judge Gina O'Rourke said on Friday. In further "deplorable" behaviour, Hawell's then-20-year-old brother Marius entered the bedroom and used his phone torch to watch the rape. All three men had the night before taken part in the gang rape of two teenage women in the same apartment, although the judge did not find Marius Hawell took part in penetrative sex. The "pack mentality" the man adopted stood in stark contrast to how the women in their life saw them, Judge O'Rourke noted. The mother of the Hawell brothers said her boys had the "utmost respect for women", while the court heard of their conservative Christian beliefs and high levels of education. That such men committed heinous sexual assaults in such a "cold, callous and degrading" manner was one of the most distressing, confronting and worrying aspects of the crimes, Judge O'Rourke said. "They are not monsters, which (if they were) would have perhaps in some way explained, but, of course, never justified this serious bout of criminal behaviour," she said. "Yet on this weekend, (they) were capable, in a pack mentality, of treating three young women in this cold, callous, degrading and criminal way." At a joint trial in July, the older men were found guilty by a jury of seven counts of aggravated sexual assault in company, while Marius Hawell was found guilty of five counts. Each man maintains their innocence and intends to appeal. In the meantime, Maurice Hawell will begin serving a 14-year sentence, which comes with a non-parole period of eight years and nine months. His mate David was jailed for 13 years with a minimum of seven years and nine months. Marius Hawell, who received the shortest term of nine years, will be eligible for parole in December 2029. 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028