The no-nonsense judge who will sentence three men for gang-raping a trio of teenagers during a stag weekend is an old friend of Queen Mary of Denmark and was invited to her fairytale wedding.
Judge Gina O’Rourke attended the University of Tasmania with the woman then known simply as Mary Donaldson in the early 1990s and the pair remained close over the years.
O’Rourke was among the Australian contingent Mary invited to witness her wedding to Crown Prince Frederick at Copenhagen Cathedral in May 2004, along with other companions including bridesmaid Amber Petty.
She then joined kings and queens, presidents and prime ministers, and members of Europe’s royal and noble families at Fredensborg Palace for the post-wedding festivities.
O’Rourke was appointed to the district court in January 2018 after 15 years in the New South Wales Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and a previous two-year stint in its Commonwealth equivalent.
As a Crown prosecutor, he conducted more than 200 jury trials, including high-profile cases of murder and sexual assault, as well as serious fraud and international drug trafficking.
The mother of three was known on the court circuit for wearing elegant Scanlan Theodore suits and high heels, with her hair pulled back in a signature short black bob.
More recently, O’Rourke presided over the joint trials of brothers Maurice and Marius Hawell and their friend Andrew David, who pleaded not guilty to gang-raping three women in Newcastle.
The no-nonsense judge who will sentence three men for gang-raping a trio of teenagers during a stag weekend is an old friend of Queen Mary of Denmark and was invited to her wedding.
The three Sydney men were part of a group of nine people who rented an Airbnb for a weekend in February 2022 ahead of Maurice Hawell’s pending wedding.
On Friday night they raped two 18-year-old women they brought from the nearby Cambridge Hotel and the following night they raped a 19-year-old woman in the apartment.
Maurice Hawell and David, both 30, claimed any sexual relations they had with the women were consensual, while Marius Hawell, 22, insisted he had not engaged in any sexual activity at all.
Last month, after a trial that lasted nearly four weeks, a jury found all three guilty of multiple counts of aggravated sexual assault in company.
O’Rourke remanded Hawells and David in custody for a sentencing hearing on September 17 after neither of them applied for bail.
In March last year, O’Rourke jailed former prison officer Wayne Astill for 23 years for raping or indecently assaulting female inmates at Dillwynia Correctional Centre.
That sentence, which set a minimum term of 15 years and four months for O’Rourke, was unanimously upheld by the Court of Criminal Appeals earlier this month.
Judge Gina O’Rourke attended the University of Tasmania with the woman then known simply as Mary Donaldson in the early 1990s and the couple remained close over the years.
O’Rourke’s background – and his encounters with royalty – were outlined at his swearing-in ceremony by barrister Michael McHugh SC.
Raised in Ulverstone on Tasmania’s north coast, O’Rourke excelled at sport and played for the state’s basketball teams, but always wanted to become a lawyer.
He met Hobart-born Mary Donaldson at the University of Tasmania, where the future queen graduated in 1995 with a combined Bachelor of Commerce and Law degree.
After honing his legal skills in the Northern Territory, where he conducted trials in remote Indigenous communities, sometimes under trees or in school classrooms, O’Rourke moved to New South Wales.
At the DDP’s Sydney office, O’Rourke shared an office with Deputy Crown Attorney Paul Conlon, who later became a distinguished District Court judge.
McHugh said Conlon was immediately impressed with O’Rourke’s “no-nonsense approach” and his meticulous preparation for trials.
“Your Honor fondly recalls the occasion when you returned a report with what at first seemed an incredible excuse,” McHugh said in his welcome address.
‘You were attending the royal wedding of Frederick, Crown Prince of Denmark and a certain Mary Donaldson.
‘Of course, you were good friends with Princess Mary from university and were, in fact, invited to the royal wedding.’
O’Rourke presided over the joint trials of Maurice Hawell (above), Marius Hawell and their friend Andrew David, who pleaded not guilty to gang-raping three women in Newcastle.
Conlon, now president of the New South Wales Rugby League and still an acting District Court judge, had described attending a royal wedding as “without a doubt” the best excuse he had ever heard for filing a writ.
“I’m told your attendance at the royal wedding is legendary,” McHugh told O’Rourke in his speech.
Other guests described O’Rourke rubbing shoulders with Princess Caroline of Monaco and Sir Roger Moore, the third actor to play James Bond on the big screen.
McHugh said the then governor of Tasmania, Richard Butler, had stepped on the train of O’Rourke’s dress as she made her way to church.
After her marriage, Mary assumed her husband’s title and became Her Royal Highness The Crown Princess of Denmark.
Of O’Rourke’s career in the prosecutor’s office, McHugh said: “The police wanted you as a prosecutor, the lawyers wanted to instruct you and the underlings wanted to be underlings.”
“It has been said that Your Honor has the judicial strength to handle matters that call for the imposition of severe sanctions, as well as those where leniency is required,” McHugh said.
O’Rourke then joined kings and queens, presidents and prime ministers, and other members of Europe’s royal and noble families at Fredensborg Palace for the post-wedding festivities (above).
During his time at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, O’Rourke successfully prosecuted Hey Dad…! star Robert Hughes for child sex crimes and billionaire real estate developer Ron Medich for ordering the contract killing of his business rival Michael McGurk.
Mary Donaldson met Crown Prince Frederick at the Slip Inn in Sydney’s central business district during the 2000 Olympics, when they were 28 and 32 respectively.
She was a sales director at real estate firm Belle Property, working in advertising since graduating the same year as Mary, and became engaged to Frederik in October 2003.
He ascended to the Danish throne as King Frederick X in January this year following the abdication of his mother Margaret II after a 52-year reign, making his wife Queen Mary.
The couple have four children: Christian, Crown Prince of Denmark, Princess Elizabeth, Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine.
Queen Mary, 52, and King Frederik, 56, have endured months of rumours that the monarch had an affair with Mexican socialite Genoveva Casanova, which the latter has strenuously denied.
The royal couple have been in Paris to support the Danish team at the Olympics, and Mary has also visited the Australian athletes.