Latest news with #Hawach
News.com.au
24-04-2025
- News.com.au
Top lawyer is linked to infamous Lebanese child-snatching case
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, and later a book, Flight of the Dragonfly, after the courageous mother executed a daring operation to recover her daughters from Lebanon. 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. 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. 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.
News.com.au
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
John Singleton's daughter in messy court fight with separated husband
EXCLUSIVE A Sydney court has put in place an interim domestic violence order for the protection of Sally Singleton-Hawach, the daughter of John Singleton and his beauty queen former wife Belinda Green. Ms Singleton-Hawach and her husband Pierre Hawach fronted Parramatta Court on March 25 following an incident last month. The DVO, ordered by magistrate Peter Feather, restricts the behaviour of Pierre Hawach who, under its terms, must not assault or threaten his wife or anyone she has a domestic relationship with. He also must not stalk, harass or intimidate Ms Singleton-Hawach, must not intentionally or recklessly destroy or damage any property that belongs to or is in the possession of Ms Singleton-Hawach and must not harm an animal belonging to his wife. The matter is listed to return to court, for mention, next week on April 29, 10 years to the day the Hawachs married. The couple, who have three young children under eight, are currently living separately. Ms Singleton-Hawach is listed as the sole owner of the family home on a large 2,021m2 block in West Pennant Hills, purchased in October 2016 for $3,282,500. is informed the house was a wedding gift from her father, the retired media and ad boss, and it was to the West Pennant Hills property, which features guest accommodation, that John 'Singo' Singleton retreated last year following the breakdown of his seventh marriage to Sarah Warry. It is the second time Ms Singleton-Hawach, executive producer of LAMP Music, singer and self-described art therapist, has been the subject of a court-ordered DVO relating to her husband. In November 2021, Mr Hawach, a divorce lawyer, was again restrained by the terms of a DVO. That order was later withdrawn when the couple reunited after separating for about six months. Ms Singleton-Hawach, 40, is multi-millionaire John Singleton's second daughter with one time model and 1972 Australian Miss World pageant winner Belinda Green. She has an older sister, Jessie. The Hawachs were married in a lavish wedding in Rome in 2015. The wedding was held at San Marcello Al Corso with wedding photographs taken afterwards outside St Peter's Basilica to the delight of Mr Hawach's Lebanese Catholic family. At the reception, the bride's father gave his new son-in-law a ringing endorsement, calling Hawach 'the first decent bloke I've ever met with Sally, ever'. 'He's just a great bloke. He was a leaguie (rugby league fan), a gambler…and I thought how lucky is (Sally),' the father-of-the-bride said in his wedding day speech. 'Sally, I love you, but I prefer Pierre. So I really hope it works Sal 'cos don't ask me to choose,' he said.
