A man convicted over the ‘heinous’ gang rape of three teenagers at a bucks party in Newcastle has reportedly been bashed in prison by an inmate.
Marius Hawell, 23, was last month jailed for nine years over the gang rape of three women during his brother’s bucks party in February 2022.
The inmate was attacked in jail in August this year according to a psychological report tendered on behalf of his older brother, 30-year-old Maurice Hawell.
‘I learned last week my brother (Marius) was bashed and he had his nose fractured,’ Maurice Hawell told a psychologist in a report presented at sentence proceedings and obtained by news.com.au.
‘The people who bashed him said I’ll be next.’
A jail insider told the publication Marius was ‘punched by another inmate in an accommodation wing’ at the facility.
The 23-year-old was treated by on-site medical staff and didn’t require hospital treatment. No one was charged over the incident.
Marius’ older brother and groom Maurice was sentenced to 14 years and his groomsman Andrew David, 30, was jailed for 13 years for sexual assaults described by the judge as ‘degrading and heinous’.
Three women gave evidence at a June trial in the NSW District Court of being invited back to an Airbnb by the two Hawell brothers, David and others were staying at before they were attacked.
The incidents took place over two nights the Sydney-based friends stayed in Newcastle, with a jury finding two women were raped on the first evening and another on the second.
Two 18-year-olds, who met Maurice at the Cambridge Hotel on the first night, went back to the Airbnb hired for his bachelor party and were sexually assaulted by multiple men in a dark bedroom.
A 19-year-old woman invited to the Airbnb on the second night was led into a bedroom and raped by two men, and believed a third came into the room to watch.
A few weeks later, in April 2022, the two Hawell brothers and David were pictured at the glittering wedding as Maurice tied the knot with his cousin, Loubna Yousif.
The groom was arrested and charged the following month, while Marius and David were arrested in June 2022.
Judge O’Rourke said the conduct of the Hawells and David was in ‘stark contrast to how their mothers, wife, girlfriends and sisters have described them’.
‘They are three highly educated, intelligent, successful, professional young men who come from loving Christian families, who treat their own sisters, mothers and female partners with respect and love,’ she said.
‘And yet on this weekend, they were capable in a pack mentality of treating three young women in this cold, callous, degrading and criminal way.’
Judge O’Rourke said one of the women, all of whom were teenagers at the time, was treated as ‘an object… not a young female person who deserved to be treated with dignity’.
The three men all maintained their innocence, with Maurice and David insisting it was consensual while Marius denied engaging in any sex.
They were convicted by a jury on multiple counts of aggravated sexual assault in company, aggravated sexual touching in company and attempting to commit sexual assault in company.
The judge imposed a minimum sentence of five years and five months for Marius, meaning he will be eligible for parole in December 2029.