Two men are due to be sentenced after they were found guilty of gang raping three teenagers during a booze-fuelled bucks party weekend in Newcastle.
Andrew David, 30, and Marius Hawell, 22, rented an Airbnb on Parry St for a weekend in February 2022 to celebrate the upcoming wedding of Maurice Hawell, 30.
The rental home became the setting of a horrific nightmare for two 18-year-old women and a 19-year-old woman who were gang raped by the trio over two nights.
Andrew and Marius are expected to front the NSW District Court on Tuesday to be sentenced for sexually assaulting the three teens.
Alongside Maurice, they were found guilty of engaging in a joint criminal enterprise to sexually assault the women after a weeks-long trial in the NSW District Court earlier this year.
The two 18-year-old victims told the court they had agreed to go back to the Airbnb after meeting the men at the Cambridge Hotel on the Friday night of the bucks weekend.
When they went into a bedroom to retrieve their phones as they prepared to leave, they testified they were pinned down to beds and violated.
One of the teens said she was raped by a man she couldn’t see while another man knelt on her arms and thrust his penis into her mouth.
At the same time, the other 18-year-old recalled being held down on a neighbouring bed and stripped naked by a “swarm” of men before being sexually assaulted.
Although the teens could not see their assailants, the jurors found Andrew, Maurice, and Marius were responsible for the gang rapes.
They also found the men guilty of jointly sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman on the following night.
The teen told the court she had been approached on the street by Maurice, who used a fake name as he persuaded her to come up to the Airbnb for pre-drinks.
Instead of giving her a drink, she said Maurice pushed her onto a bed and asked her to have a threesome with him and Andrew.
“What? No,” she recounted telling him.
Despite her refusal, the 19-year-old said Andrew knelt on her shoulders and forced his penis into her mouth while Maurice raped her.
The court was told Marius entered the room and turned on his phone’s flashlight as Maurice and Andrew took turns sexually assaulting the woman.
She said she put her pants on backwards in her haste to leave the apartment after the gang rape and the court heard she was “sobbing” when she disclosed the assault to a friend.
All three men continue to maintain their innocence, with Maurice and Andrew claiming the sexual activity was consensual while Marius argued he hadn’t engaged in any sex acts during the bucks weekend.
The trio have been in custody for two months since the jury returned guilty verdicts.
Judge Gina O’Rourke is expected to sentence Andrew and Marius on Tuesday.
Maurice, who was found guilty of rape and is expected to learn his fate on Wednesday.
Sexual assault support lines embed
Source Agencies
