Parramatta Marist High School – Call for Witnesses
Koffels Law firm is seeking witnesses to alleged child sexual abuse perpetrated by Stuart Hawkins who was a teacher of Parramatta Marist High School between 1975 and 1993.
We are assisting survivors who were sexually abused by Graeme Stuart Hawkins. Graeme Stuart Hawkins was also known as Stuart Hawkins. He worked as a teacher at Parramatta Marist High School Westmead, NSW from 1975 to 1993. He ran the Parramatta Marist Canoe Club at the School.
The Parramatta Marist Canoe Club commenced in around 1976. Members of the club included students of the Parramatta Marist High School and ex-students of the School. The canoe club camped and trained in various locations including Mystery, Wisemans Ferry, Narrabeen and Sydney Harbour.
It is alleged that Stuart Hawkins supplied alcohol and cigarettes to students and sexually abused them whilst they were under his care. Most of the alleged sexual abuse took place during camps and trips away with the Parramatta Marist Canoe Club.
In October 1993, the alleged sexual abuse was reported to the police and the matter was investigated. 14 victims were identified in the original investigation. The average age of the victims at the time of the offences was 14. Considering the length of the time that Stuart Hawkins had been a teacher at the school, involved in the canoe club, the nature of the offences, it is believed that the number of actual victims over this period of time would be far greater than the 14 identified.
In December 1993, 2 months after the initial investigation, Stuart Hawkins was found dead in his van near Kempsey NSW.
If you attended the canoe club at Parramatta Marist High School Westmead from 1975 to 1993 or are otherwise able to provide information to assist survivors who were abused by Stuart Hawkins, please contact our associate, Ms Sharon Cai , on 02 9283 5599 or via the form below:
4 replies to Parramatta Marist High School – Call for Witnesses
I left pmb 1990,I was in the canoe club and the scuba diving around 1986/87, I was assaulted by Mr hawkins many times,Ur welcome to call me anytime.
Hi Mr Knight,
Thank you for having the courage to contact us. Is email the best way to contact you regarding your experience at the hands of Mr Hawkins or could you give us a phone number?
I was in the canoe club and Stuart Hawkins was known as serious alcoholic in the early 1980s, but somehow he kept his job with the school, fast forward 2024 he would have been fired for alcohol abuse and perhaps much of the abuse of students could have been avoided. He was ex Duntroon officer and before becoming a teacher, he went off to Vietnam, his marriage with children broke up, that’s the story I heard thru my parents network. He used to sleep rough in the back room of the tin shed the army cadets used at school. It never occurred to me that he was capable of those offences, I always thought the ‘problems’ at Marist Westmead only existed in the swimming squad and football team as every brother jailed seemed to have some involvement in the former. I remember Hawkins always seemed to drive one particular boy to school in his little 4×4, they’d always seem to be together, if not in the 4×4 or the aluminium boat called the ‘flea’, and thinking back that boy must have been one of his victims. I must have lucked out an missed a bullet in the canoe club, only stayed in it from years 7 to 9, and possibly because I was never around Hawkins when he was full of alcohol. I also avoided the swimming squad, cadets and football team as they didn’t ‘feel’ right because of a few of the brothers
Hi and thank you for your helpful – if frightening – information.
We totally understand your desire to remain anonymous but if you ever felt like talking to us, in the strictest confidence of course, your contribution could be pivotal in helping those who were abused by Stuart Hawkins & the others in their long path to recovery, a sense of justice and the compensation they deserve. Please call or email Sharon Cai (sharoncai@koffels.com.au) in our main Sydbney office on 02 9283 5599 or reach out via our WhatsApp on the same number.