Former NSW prison officers say system protects abusers and silences women

As a single mother of two, Leanne Farrugia was proud to secure a stable job as a junior prison guard at Metropolitan Remand & Reception Centre at Silverwater, in Sydney's west, in 2018.

That sense of security was shattered one night in May 2022. She was at home sick when her supervisor, then-senior correctional officer Scott Hawken, arrived at her house and drugged her.

"I remember him grabbing me off the lounge and putting his arm around my arm … and dragging me down the corridor to my bedroom," she recalled through tears, "and then that's when the sexual assault happened".

Ms Farrugia was not Hawken's first target. The public agency that employed them both, Corrective Services New South Wales (CSNSW), was aware of earlier complaints.

Internal documents obtained by the ABC show CSNSW had received multiple reports of unwanted sexual advances towards female staff by Mr Hawken, three years before he raped Ms Farrugia.

Despite the allegations, Hawken maintained a senior position in CSNSW throughout this period.

He continued working in corrections and preying on more women, including Ms Farrugia, whose testimony helped secure his convictions in 2024 and last year. 

He was sentenced to a minimum of three years' jail for sexually assaulting Ms Farrugia. 

He will be sentenced on March 30 on other charges.

Over three years, Ms Farrugia wrote to prison governors, directors, deputy commissioners and commissioners of CSNSW, outlining the seriousness of Hawken's offending and what she described as systemic failures that allowed him to reoffend.

But she said her calls for a thorough investigation into those failures were not answered.

"I felt neglected. I felt like I was nothing, I was just a serial number," Ms Farrugia told the ABC.

Ms Farrugia's allegations against CSNSW come as the agency confronts a deepening crisis after a series of sexual assault scandals involving senior correctional officers.

It has raised fresh questions about the agency's leadership and its oversight of the state's prison system.

Eileen Baldry, UNSW Emeritus Professor of Criminology, said Hawken's case demonstrated that the culture of corrections was one that protected its own.

"It's very similar, for example, to churches — Catholic Church, Anglicans — who moved priests around once somebody said … this priest has been sexually abusing my child," Professor Baldry said.

Some current and former staff are now speaking out, describing what they say is a toxic workplace culture and a system that shields officers accused of serious misconduct rather than holding them accountable. They argue it has driven younger officers to leave the service.

Professor Baldry described the crisis as CSNSW's "Me Too" moment.

"Finally, there were enough women and enough people in the community to stand up and show … that attitude is patriarchal and it is abusive and it's traumatic and it should not be allowed to stand," she said.

A CSNSW spokesperson said the agency enforced a "zero-tolerance policy" on sexual assault and harassment in its workplaces.

"We want to ensure everyone feels safe in NSW prisons and can live and work freely without fear of harm. Whenever this standard is not met, people will be held accountable for violent or unlawful behaviour," the spokesperson said.

Known to the system

In February 2022, three months before Ms Farrugia was raped, a separate internal complaint about Hawken was submitted to CSNSW by an administrative officer working in the same area.

The staff member alleged Hawken sent her a series of inappropriate messages and sexual comments via Facebook, according to a summary document detailing a range of allegations against Hawken.

The CSNSW Professional Standards Branch was preparing misconduct papers for consideration by the prison governor, the document said.

The summary document also revealed the CSNSW's Professional Standards Committee (PSC) was already investigating a separate allegation that Hawken used information provided by a trainee correctional officer to locate her on Facebook and send her messages.

The PSC referred the earlier matter to the prison governor, recommending Hawken be counselled. But records show the counselling did not occur, as the governor was on leave at the time.

The same document also indicated Hawken had been counselled in 2019, by then-governor Emma Smith, over allegations he made unwanted sexual advances toward female staff, although he denied those claims.

The ABC has obtained a letter sent to Hawken and signed by CSNSW Assistant Commissioner John Buckley, which outlines further details of the 2019 allegations made by multiple correctional officers in Dillwynia Correctional Centre.

One officer alleged Hawken asked her to engage in a sexual relationship with him. She said he later grabbed her wrist, placed her in what she described as a "bear hug" and attempted to force her face towards his.

A day later, while she was escorting an inmate, she alleged Hawken brushed his hand up and down her lower back, rubbing it for several seconds before smirking and shrugging his shoulders.

She said he sent her a series of text messages, including: "U owe me a pic of your tits" and "don't be a bitch lol".

The letter also showed two other officers alleged similar matters in 2019.

One said Hawken sent her Facebook messages suggesting they "meet up at your house", and asked: "What's stopping me from following you home when I see you in the area?"

Another officer alleged he told her she "needed a FWB (friend with benefits)" and a "f*** buddy" and suggested she "call in for coffee at my place on your way home".

The letter also recorded that after Hawken was made aware of one female officer reporting him to the governor, Ms Smith, he accused her of "bringing contraband in" for inmates and suggested she should be reported to Professional Standards.

Professor Baldry said the documents pointed to an "absolute failure" by Corrective Services to stop Hawken from reoffending, arguing he should have been sacked and the allegations referred to police.

"Certainly, the department failed. The department has the means and the avenues to investigate these matters and they simply swept it under the carpet," she said.

The spokesperson for CSNSW said that, while it was not appropriate to comment on individual claims during ongoing proceedings, the organisation acknowledged the pain, strength and courage of victim-survivors who had experienced harm at the hands of these individuals.

Toxic culture

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 documents detail allegations including sexual violence against staff, inmates and minors; repeated unwanted advances; sexually explicit text messages; the misuse of personal information to contact colleagues; and sexualised insults.

In some instances, officers had previously been counselled about similar conduct before further complaints were made. It was unclear from the records whether additional disciplinary action was taken.

Professor Baldry said the reports of dozens of incidents in a short period pointed to a systemic problem. She said they also suggested little meaningful action was taken against the officers accused.

"In many cases, it resulted in nothing, or it resulted in a person being sacked or having to leave the service, but nothing else happened," she said. "There wasn't a criminal case brought."

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".

CSNSW launched an investigation into Willis, according to internal correspondence seen by the ABC, but declined to disclose the findings.

Ms Prince alleged that, a year after reporting Willis, he was reinstated to the roster and due to return to work without her being informed of the outcome of the investigation, despite repeatedly emailing local managers, deputy commissioners and the commissioner seeking an update.

Ms Prince said the handling of her complaint exposed systemic failings.

"How can people feel safe coming into the department knowing these predators are there?" she said.

She said resignations among younger officers had increased, contributing to staffing shortages across the system.

"Correctional officers were leaving quicker than they could hire them," she alleged.

CSNSW said that, in response to longstanding systemic issues first identified in 2019, the NSW government had committed to cultural and operational reform to provide safe and respectful workplaces for staff, and CSNSW was fulfilling that commitment.

Silencing victims

Ms Prince said she remained proud of her work as correctional officer but claimed there was a culture of cover-ups.

She alleged that survivors were required to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to receive compensation from CSNSW.

"It's appalling that CSNSW tries to buy women's silence with these NDAs," she said.

"I realised these were their dirty secrets, not mine."

Julia Delaforce, a defence whistleblower who has campaigned against NDAs after she was bound by one for 15 years, said such agreements had been "weaponised".

"These agreements shield institutions from accountability while isolating those who speak out," she said.

"Government institutions are funded by and accountable to the public. When misconduct is hidden behind confidentiality agreements, transparency and trust are undermined."

CSNSW did not respond to questions about the NDAs or allegations they were used to silence victims.

'Failure of multiple levels'

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.

"The problems were exacerbated by the failure of multiple levels of managers in CSNSW," the final report of the Astill Inquiry stated.

The inquiry recommended sweeping reforms, including improved CCTV coverage, confidential reporting pathways and an auditable system to record inmate complaints.

It also described the internal complaints system as "not fit for purpose".

Last year, the NSW government appointed a new commissioner, Gary McCahon, to lead Corrective Services NSW, saying in a press release that he brought "experience in managing change and reform".

Several current correctional officers told the ABC that Mr McCahon was overseeing a major restructure of CSNSW to address issues identified in the Astill Inquiry.

Professor Baldry said she believed it was the most significant shake-up in decades to address what she described as egregious failures of care and longstanding abuse within the corrections system.

But lasting reform of the system, she warned, would require long-term cultural change, and training alone was not enough to shift entrenched attitudes.

She said prisons urgently needed greater openness, including stronger involvement from community organisations and stronger oversight by the Inspector of Custodial Services.

"Transparency has to be a key concept from now on, and it mustn't be able to fall back as it has on a number of occasions … because the culture comes back," she said.

CSNSW said work had begun on all recommendations from the Astill Inquiry, with 18 completed as of February this year.

For both Ms Farrugia and Ms Prince, speaking out has come at significant personal cost.

Ms Farrugia said she was isolated and unsupported by CSNSW, which led her to develop suicidal thoughts.

She was hospitalised in 2023 after being found unresponsive at her home following a medication overdose.

"Speaking up cost me everything because I lost my career. I lost my job. I lost my financial stability. I lost my purpose in life. I lost my soul. My children lost their mother," Ms Farrugia said.

Ms Prince was diagnosed with a major depressive disorder with anxious distress and aggravated PTSD. Her medical report cited workplace trauma as a contributing factor. But she said she would not stop using her voice to advocate for change.

"When I was sworn in, I solemnly declared I would serve as a correctional officer without fear or favour," Ms Prince said.

"I remain committed to that oath."