One of three teenagers who was gang-raped by three men while celebrating a stag party has revealed she was “terrified to face the world” after the sexual assault.
Maurice Hawell, 30, Andrew David, 30, and Marius Hawell, 23, rented an Airbnb on Parry Street in Newcastle, north of Sydney, for a weekend in February 2022 to celebrate Maurice’s upcoming wedding.
The rented house became the scene 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.
David and Marius appeared in the New South Wales District Court on Tuesday for a sentencing hearing ahead of their trial for sexually assaulting the three teenagers. Maurice will face a similar hearing on Wednesday.
The trio were found guilty of participating in a joint criminal enterprise to sexually assault the women after a trial lasting several weeks in the New South Wales District Court earlier this year.
The 19-year-old victim told the court she was “terrified to face the world” after being sexually assaulted by Maurice and David in a dark room as Marius watched.
She told the court she “felt vulnerable”, “experienced panic attacks” and was “unable to leave her house alone” in the months that followed.
“I went from being constantly surrounded by friends to wanting to be left alone, I felt like I had lost myself deeply,” the victim explained.
Maurice Hawell, 30, (pictured) Andrew David, 30, and Marius Hawell, 23, rented an Airbnb on Parry Street in Newcastle, north of Sydney, for a weekend in February 2022 to celebrate Maurice’s upcoming wedding.
Maurice Hawell (pictured right) was found guilty of sexually assaulting three women.
“I started blaming myself for allowing that to happen.”
The teenager said she spent countless sleepless nights thinking about what she could have done differently to avoid the traumatic gang rape.
During the trial, she testified that Maurice approached her on the street and used a fake name to convince her to go to the Airbnb for drinks before leaving.
Instead of giving her something to drink, she said Maurice pushed her onto a bed and asked her to have a threesome with him and David.
Despite her denials, the 19-year-old said David knelt on her shoulders and forced his penis into her mouth while Maurice raped her.
The court heard the woman had put her trousers on backwards in her rush to leave the apartment and was “sobbing”.
One of the victims, aged 18, said the gang rape on Friday night had had a “huge emotional impact” on every aspect of her life.
Marius Hawell, 23 (pictured), was also convicted of sexually assaulting the women at the stag party.
She and a friend testified that they were pinned to beds and raped when they entered a room to look for their phones while trying to leave the Airbnb.
“This event has made me stop trusting the people around me,” he said.
“I couldn’t trust any man around me.”
The 18-year-old said she had constant flashbacks and felt guilty about the traumatic incident, which had affected her outlook on the world.
During the trial, she told the court she was raped by a man she could not see while another man knelt on her arms and put his penis in her mouth.
At the same time, the other 18-year-old recalled that a “swarm” of men pinned him down on a nearby bed and stripped him before sexually assaulting him.
Although the teenagers were unable to see their attackers, jurors found David, Maurice and Marius responsible for the gang rapes.
All three men continue to maintain their innocence, with Maurice and David claiming the sexual activity was consensual, while Marius argued he had not engaged in any sexual acts during the stag weekend.
They have been detained for two months since the jury returned a guilty verdict.
Andrew David (pictured) and Marius appeared in the New South Wales District Court on Tuesday for a sentencing hearing before facing trial for sexually assaulting the three teenagers.
