Lawyer's link to famous Lebanese kid-snatch
Don't miss out on the headlines from Lifestyle. Followed categories will be added to My News.
EXCLUSIVE
As a divorce lawyer Pierre Hawach, estranged husband of Sally Singleton-Hawach, knows well the workings of the court system.
It was his appearance as a witness in the NSW Supreme Court in 2006 however that stands today as perhaps his most famous court appearance.
Hawach is the brother of Joseph Hawach who, in July 2006, during a custody visit with his two young children, fled to Lebanon taking the children without their mother Melissa's permission.
The story of Canadian-born mother Melissa Hawach's battle to recover her two daughters made headlines around the world inspiring first a website, helpbringhannahandcecarhome.com, and later a book, Flight of the Dragonfly, after the courageous mother executed a daring operation to recover her daughters from Lebanon.
Sally Singleton-Hawach to her wedding to Pierre Hawach in Rome. Instagram.
Melissa Hawach outside Supreme Court in Sydney with parents Jim and Judy Engdahl 30 Nov 2006.
The girls, Hannah and Cedar, who have dual Canadian-Australian citizenship, lived in Calgary, Canada, with their parents from 2003.
When Joseph and Melissa's six-year marriage failed in 2005, Joseph moved home to Australia but Melissa remained in Canada with her daughters, of whom she retained sole custody.
The girls were aged just five and three when their mother agreed they could spend three weeks in Australia with their father in July 2006 on a custody visit. The Hawach family is a Lebanese-Australian family from Sydney's Rose Hill.
It was then that father Joseph disappeared with the girls and cut off communication with his ex-wife.
Joseph Hawach, Lebanese-Australian who abducted his two daughters Hannah and Cedar from estranged Canadian wife Melissa.
Melissa Hawach leaves the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney.
It would take the determined mother seven months to recover her children in an operation involving four former members of elite Australian and New Zealand special forces who ran an undercover surveillance exercise established outside Beirut where the girls' father had them secreted at a resort.
Two of the operatives would be jailed for obstructing justice for their part in the operation while another two ex-soldiers would escape.
They were released from jail in 2007.
Melissa Hawach's story, and the terrifying seven-week recovery mission, took mother and daughters through a series of safe houses in Lebanon before the trio fled home to Canada via Syria and Jordan.
Once home, they went into hiding.
Prior to the successful retrieval operation, Melissa Hawach launched legal action in the NSW Supreme Court seeking information from her ex-husband's family about her daughter's whereabouts.
In December 2006, Pierre Hawach told the Supreme Court he did not know where his brother and the children were located in Lebanon.
He revealed he had spoken to Joseph on the phone and his brother had told him he was not planning to return from Lebanon.
Mr Hawach's father Elias Hawach, speaking through an Arabic interpreter, informed the court his wife Gladys had been visiting family in the Lebanese village Harf-Miziara for a three-month period.
Sally Singleton-Hawach pictured right with father John Singleton
Pierre Hawach and Sally Singleton at the Magic Millions
Joseph Hawach was later charged with two counts of child abduction by the Lebanese court and international warrants issued for his arrest. No adverse findings were made by the Supreme Court against Pierre and Elias Hawach.
Joseph Hawach's relatives got on with their lives. His brother, Pierre, married singer Sally Singleton-Hawach in a lavish ceremony in Rome in 2015.
Among wedding guests were her high profile parents, multi-millionaire retired ad boss John Singleton and his ex wife, 1972 Miss World Belinda Green.
The couple are parents to three young children - Lewis, seven, Mirabel, six and four-year-old Johnny, named after his grandfather.
On March 25 Parramatta court issued an interim domestic apprehended violence order preventing Pierre Hawach from approaching Sally.
The DVO matter returns to court on Tuesday. No charges have been laid. Mr Hawach is not accused of any wrongdoing.
He has been approached for comment.
Originally published as Top lawyer is linked to infamous Lebanese child-snatching case
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
West Australian
37 minutes ago
- West Australian
Editorial: Independent corruption watchdog is as important as ever
The role of corruption fighter is not for the faint hearted. By its very nature, the job of being an anti-corruption warrior means being prepared to take on powerful characters. Of course that means the holder of the office may also encounter push back. And it may also mean the office is caught up in political cross-fire. WA's soon to depart Corruption and Crime Commissioner John McKechnie has been no stranger to controversy. WA's first director of public prosecutions, Mr McKechnie went on to spend more than 15 years on the bench of the State's Supreme Court before his appointment as the corruption watchdog chief. He has served as the State's Corruption and Crime Commissioner since 2015 and will retire at the end of this month. Mr McKechnie has seen more cases, tried more cases, heard more cases and written up more cases that possibly any other jurist in the State. Having been the State's DPP for seven years up until 1999, he had overseen prosecutions of the most sensitive kind. Two premiers — Brian Burke and Ray O'Connor — and a deputy premier, David Parker, came under his prosecutorial gaze. As did the Rothwells and horse-race fixing charges laid against Laurie Connell. In his time as a judge of the Supreme Court, then Justice McKechnie sentenced some of the worst offenders, including child killer Dante Arthurs. Under Mr McKechnie's leadership, the CCC uncovered several high-profile public servants accused of corruption, including former Housing Authority boss Paul Whyte, who pleaded guilty to stealing more than $27 million from the Department of Communities. He also led investigations into MPs misusing electoral allowances, five contractors given deals with the North Metropolitan Health Service in exchange for kickbacks for public servants and, more recently, the overseas travel of former ombudsman Chris Field. However, under his leadership the commission also drew criticism from the parliamentary inspector Matthew Zilko, who found it had falsely implied former Japanese trade commissioner Craig Peacock had committed tax evasion. Mr McKechnie was also at the centre of a political storm and came under fierce attack from the Liberal Opposition in the lead up to his 2021 reappointment under the McGowan Labor government. Now the spotlight turns onto who will replace Mr McKechnie. It is said that there can be a tendency for the wheels to fall off when governments are in office for a long time. The State Labor Government is now entering its third term, again with a huge majority. Power and hubris can be a powerful combination if left unchecked. In The West Australian today Mr McKechnie warns that the WA public service was losing its independence. His message is clear. The need for a strong and independent corruption watchdog is as important as ever.
Perth Now
an hour ago
- Perth Now
Lunch aftermath in focus at Erin Patterson murder trial
Accused triple murderer Erin Patterson has faced questions about whether she feigned her illness in the days following a deadly beef Wellington lunch. Patterson is set to spend a seventh day in the witness box in her Supreme Court trial as crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC continues her cross-examination. The 50-year-old has pleaded not guilty to murdering her former in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, as well as the attempted murder of Heather's husband Ian. She denies she deliberately poisoned her lunch guests on July 29, 2023 when she served them death cap mushroom-laced beef Wellingtons, and claims it was a terrible accident. Dr Rogers on Tuesday accused the mushroom cook of faking her nausea, diarrhoea and abdominal pain in conversations with health professionals, her children and Simon. She suggested to Patterson the reason why she had told so many people about her symptoms was because she wanted to also appear unwell from the lunch. "You did that because you knew you had not eaten death cap mushrooms ... and you knew how suspicious it would look if you did not seem sick like your guests," the prosecutor said. "Incorrect," Patterson replied. Patterson was asked about the beef Wellington leftovers, with the prosecutor suggesting she had assisted police in finding the remains in her bin because "you knew you had no means of removing the leftovers from your bin by yourself". "Why wouldn't I just say there's no leftovers? That seems really convoluted," she replied. The mushroom cook said she had "no idea" when Dr Rogers put to her that she directed police to the leftovers in her outside bin to avoid suspicion. Patterson had been accused of lying by the prosecutor as she disputed evidence from doctors, nurses and her estranged husband. She denied evidence from Ian Wilkinson that she had served the guests on four large grey plates while she ate from a smaller orange or tan plate. The trial continues.
Herald Sun
2 hours ago
- Herald Sun
Ex Newborough primary teacher Peter Farmer jailed over child sex abuse
Don't miss out on the headlines from Bass Coast News. Followed categories will be added to My News. A pedophile primary school teacher who sexually assaulted five female students, often during class, will spend at least four years behind bars after pleading guilty to the vile abuse that 'ruined lives'. Peter Farmer, 66, was sentenced on Tuesday, more than 30 years after abusing 'fragile and innocent' young girls he taught at a school in Victoria's southeast. He was sentenced after pleading guilty to eight charges of indecent assault of a person under 16 and two charges of gross indecency with a person under 16. The offending took place at a Gippsland primary school where Farmer taught from 1982-1988. Farmer forced the girls to touch his penis and touched their vaginas while working as a teacher at Murray Road Primary School, now called Newborough Primary School. The court heard Farmer put his fingers inside one victim's pants every day for two terms, even when she was showing her work to the rest of the class. A victim impact statement read to the court revealed another victim felt so guilty and ashamed about being abused by Farmer that she was unable to speak about what happened, even when asked by her mother. The victim said her mother had come to her 'in a panic' after first hearing about Farmer's offending. 'She said 'he didn't do anything to you, did he?,' she wrote. 'I told her no. 'I didn't want to disappoint her or make her upset.' In a cruel twist, the victim revealed Farmer had taught the class songs including John Farnham's You're the Voice. 'It now makes me cringe,' she said of learning the lyrics. 'I didn't feel like I had a voice.' The victim said she had not spoken about the abuse until she was contacted by police after one of his former students, now aged in their 40s, reported Farmer. She had assumed action had been taken and felt 'deeply guilty' and 'physically sick' that Farmer was not held accountable for his actions until now. 'I still carry the weight of what that assumption may have meant for others.' Farmer's offending ended when someone working nearby saw him taking his hands out of a student's pants and reported him to the school He was banned from the school but returned to leave notes and gifts for students before he officially resigned. Farmer headed north after leaving Newborough Primary School and was arrested in Queensland in 2022 after his offending was reported to police by a former student. Judge Geoffrey Chettle said Farmer's offending caused 'significant and irreparable psychological damage' to his 'young, fragile, innocent' victims. He said the victims had suffered PTSD, severe depression, anxiety and insomnia and felt shame and fear. 'The damage you caused these children has ruined their lives,' Judge Chettle said. 'You enjoyed life in the Queensland sunshine while your victims endured years of distress.' The court heard Farmer was suffering from a pedophilic disorder at the time of his offending. However, Farmer's 'pedophilic interest had declined' with his age and he was now a 'low risk' of recidivism. Judge Chettle took into account Farmer's guilty plea and 'genuine remorse' when sentencing him to six and half years jail with a non parol period of four and half years, minus 103 days served in pre-sentence detention.
