Former NSW prison guard convicted of raping colleague facing trial for sexually assaulting another
First class officer Scott Barry Hawken would strike up collegiate conversations with a female guard at the Silverwater maximum security remand centre. They'd talk about health and exercise – one of his favourite topics – and ways to treat their eczema. He was her superior and married. She had no idea that 10 years earlier, he was on trial for allegedly raping a woman.
'If I'd known,' the woman, given the pseudonym OP, tells the Herald, 'I would have stayed clear.'
One night in 2022, the former bodybuilder and tighthead rugby prop went to the woman's house when she was sick, offering to help her into bed and give her some Panadeine Forte. She wasn't keen on him being there, but was too unwell to argue, the court heard. She woke with him on top of her. 'I had 10 to 12 showers in the morning,' she told the court. 'I kept scrubbing myself, washing myself.'
Hawken was convicted of raping OP in a trial last year, and was convicted of sexually touching her in a retrial this year. Two juries have failed to reach verdicts on charges that he also raped another Silverwater colleague in the Corrective Services staff sauna, and in her own home, although the second jury found him not guilty of sexually touching her. Hawken is facing a judge-only trial, accused of attacking two more colleagues.
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The lifting of non-publication orders on Monday after an application by the Herald means details about Hawken's crimes, acquittals, charges, alleged victims, and his relocation by Corrective Services to a women's prison after the first of his four rape trials, can be revealed for the first time.
Sexual assault accusations against the former prison guard date back almost 15 years. In 2012, he faced trial on charges of sexual assault without consent and assault with an act of indecency and was found not guilty of both. After the trial, NSW Corrective Services moved Hawken to Dillwynia Correctional Centre, which is a women's prison, a court heard, before moving him to Dawn de Loas and then Silverwater, where he met OP. CSNSW declined to comment.
The revelations come as the state's prison system faces serious questions about the safety of its prisons for female inmates and female staff, after a former officer, Wayne Astill, raped 14 inmates over five years at Dillwynia while concerns about his conduct were suppressed by management, and SafeWork had to slap CSNSW with six improvement notices due to its failure to address workplace sexual harassment.
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Warning: Graphic content First class officer Scott Barry Hawken would strike up collegiate conversations with a female guard at the Silverwater maximum security remand centre. They'd talk about health and exercise – one of his favourite topics – and ways to treat their eczema. He was her superior and married. She had no idea that 10 years earlier, he was on trial for allegedly raping a woman. 'If I'd known,' the woman, given the pseudonym OP, tells the Herald, 'I would have stayed clear.' One night in 2022, the former bodybuilder and tighthead rugby prop went to the woman's house when she was sick, offering to help her into bed and give her some Panadeine Forte. She wasn't keen on him being there, but was too unwell to argue, the court heard. She woke with him on top of her. 'I had 10 to 12 showers in the morning,' she told the court. 'I kept scrubbing myself, washing myself.' Hawken was convicted of raping OP in a trial last year, and was convicted of sexually touching her in a retrial this year. Two juries have failed to reach verdicts on charges that he also raped another Silverwater colleague in the Corrective Services staff sauna, and in her own home, although the second jury found him not guilty of sexually touching her. Hawken is facing a judge-only trial, accused of attacking two more colleagues. Loading The lifting of non-publication orders on Monday after an application by the Herald means details about Hawken's crimes, acquittals, charges, alleged victims, and his relocation by Corrective Services to a women's prison after the first of his four rape trials, can be revealed for the first time. Sexual assault accusations against the former prison guard date back almost 15 years. In 2012, he faced trial on charges of sexual assault without consent and assault with an act of indecency and was found not guilty of both. After the trial, NSW Corrective Services moved Hawken to Dillwynia Correctional Centre, which is a women's prison, a court heard, before moving him to Dawn de Loas and then Silverwater, where he met OP. CSNSW declined to comment. The revelations come as the state's prison system faces serious questions about the safety of its prisons for female inmates and female staff, after a former officer, Wayne Astill, raped 14 inmates over five years at Dillwynia while concerns about his conduct were suppressed by management, and SafeWork had to slap CSNSW with six improvement notices due to its failure to address workplace sexual harassment.
