‘Help’: Teen’s texts before alleged gang rape
A 19-year-old woman sent a message to her friend asking for help and saying she’d been kidnapped just minutes before she was allegedly gang raped by a bucks party, a court has heard.
Andrew David, 30, and brothers Maurice Hawell, 30, and Marius Hawell, 22, have pleaded not guilty to counts of aggravated sexual assault in company, attempting to commit aggravated sexual assault in company and aggravated sexual touching.
The men had been celebrating Maurice’s upcoming wedding with a bucks party in Newcastle on a weekend in February 2022 when they allegedly sexually assaulted three women.
Prosecutors allege the trio attacked two 18-year-old women on the Friday night and a 19-year-old woman on the following night.
Maurice and Mr David deny any sexual activity was non-consensual, while Marius claims he did not take part in any of the sexual incidents during the bucks weekend.
The trio have faced a weeks-long trial in the NSW District Court over the alleged joint criminal enterprise.
In his closing statement on Monday, Crown prosecutor Craig Evans said the jury should disregard the “fanciful” evidence given by Maurice during the trial.
“It’s not credible. It’s not believable. It’s not consistent,” he said.
In his account of the Saturday night, Maurice said he approached a 19-year-old woman on the street and she agreed to have sex with him before they entered the Airbnb.
Mr Evans said the evidence was “totally inconsistent with the contemporaneous evidence”, including CCTV audio and texts the woman had sent to a friend which said she was “in danger and needed help”.
The court heard the messages read “help” and “I’ve been kidnapped”, which Mr Evans said was dramatic but showed she felt pressured into acquiescing to Maurice’s repeated requests.
The court heard the 19-year-old initially said no but relented after Maurice pestered her into having pre drinks at his rented apartment.
She was allegedly ushered into a bedroom and pushed onto a bed in a dark room before other men entered, which she told the court made her feel “scared and anxious”.
When Maurice asked if she wanted to have a threesome with Mr David, the court heard the teen said no.
Despite her refusal, the men allegedly pinned her to the bed and forced her to engage in oral and penetrative sex.
Their actions showed they were intent on procuring group sex either “by request and if no agreement, a statement of mind to carry on anyway”, the Crown prosecutor told the court.
“They both know what one another is doing and they both continue (their sex acts) knowing she is not consenting,” he said.
It is alleged Marius then entered the room and used the flashlight on his phone to provide light.
Mr Evans said his actions meant he had knowledge the sex was non-consensual, as evident in the woman’s trapped position, but he encouraged it.
The night before, the court heard Maurice used a fake name when he invited an 18-year-old woman back to the Airbnb.
The pair had consensual sex before Maurice began badgering the teen to allow Mr David to join them, Mr Evans said.
Maurice’s insistence demonstrated his “inclinations for threesomes or group sex”, according to the Crown prosecutor.
He told the jury that the 18-year-old eventually said yes and engaged in consensual sexual activity with Mr David but then had to push him off because he didn’t listen to her request to stop biting her nipple.
Mr David has not been charged with any offence regarding the alleged bite, but Mr Evans said it showed his state of mind before the alleged rape.
Afterwards, the woman left the room and spoke with her 18-year-old friend, who had engaged in consensual sex with another bucks party attendee.
The women went into a bedroom to retrieve their mobile phones so they could leave, but the court heard they were pushed onto beds and raped by the three men.
Both teens told the court they were held down inside the dark room and couldn’t move, let alone consent.
“(The Hawell brothers and Mr David) had an agreement to sexually assault or sexually touch (the women), knowing they weren’t consenting and reckless to their consent,” Mr Evans said.
“That criminal enterprise was entered into the moment they grabbed (the women) in the dark.”
One of the women described to the court a “swarm of people” around her but couldn’t identify who was involved because it was dark.
“The circumstances prove that there’s no consent,” Mr Evans said.
He will continue his closing statements on Tuesday before the defence lawyers for the Hawell brothers and Mr David have their turn.
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