The ABC has obtained internal documents showing Corrective Services NSW (CSNSW) received multiple reports of former prison officer Scott Hawken making unwanted sexual advances towards female staff, three years before he raped a colleague in 2022.
Hawken’s case was one of more than 64 matters of sexual assault or harassment involving CSNSW staff reported to the Professional Standards branch between January 2020 and April 2023, according to records obtained by the ABC.
The ABC has spoken to nine current and former correctional officers.
Most declined to be identified for fear of retribution, but all described a toxic workplace culture that discouraged reporting and shielded senior officers.
One who did speak publicly is Kirsty Prince, a junior officer who medically retired in December.
Ms Prince said that, after she reported a senior correctional officer, she was labelled by her colleagues as a “career destroyer” and “a dog”.
“You’re a blue family now — you stick together,” she said new recruits were often told, blue being a reference to the corrections uniform.
In late 2022, Ms Prince reported a senior officer, Adrian Willis, for sending a photograph of his genitals to her, her 12-year-old son and three other minors.
As a survivor of sexual abuse as a teenager, she said she immediately recognised the seriousness of the image.
“It was the start of a grooming process,” she said.
Within days of reporting the matter, she said her confidentiality was breached by a senior manager she had confided in, and “everyone knew”.
“When it comes time to negotiate my payout, I will refuse to sign an NDA and I’m willing to walk away with nothing. This matters to me because women sign NDAs and those responsible never face consequences.”
In recent years, New South Wales prisons have been in a deepening crisis following a series of sexual misconduct scandals involving senior correctional officers, including former senior officer Wayne Astill, who was convicted of sexually assaulting more than a dozen inmates.
The crisis resulted in a major inquiry in 2023 that examined and found the culture, practices, and procedures within the jail, and the performance of several correctional officers and their managers, were inadequate and inappropriate.
Source: Former NSW prison officers say system protects abusers and silences women – ABC News