A jury in New South Wales found Gareth Ward guilty of three counts of indecent assault and one count of rape after a nine-week trial. Despite resigning from ministerial positions, Ward remains a sitting member of parliament and will face sentencing later this year.
NSW Politician Gareth Ward Convicted of Sexual Assault and Rape
NSW Politician Gareth Ward Convicted of Sexual Assault and Rape
Gareth Ward, a member of the New South Wales Parliament, has been found guilty of multiple counts of sexual assault and rape against two men.
Gareth Ward, a current member of the New South Wales (NSW) Parliament, has been found guilty of sexually assaulting two young men, leading to serious criminal charges against him. A jury reached its verdict after deliberating for three days upon completing a nine-week trial in the NSW District Court, convicting Ward of three counts of indecent assault and one count of rape.
The victims in the case were aged 18 and 24, with the alleged assaults occurring at Ward's home after they had met the 44-year-old through various political connections between 2013 and 2015. While Ward resigned from his position as a state government minister and from the Liberal Party when the allegations surfaced in 2021, he notably chose not to resign from parliament and was re-elected as the member for Kiama in the recent 2023 elections.
During the trial proceedings, the jury was presented with evidence of two separate incidents: one in which Ward invited a drunken 18-year-old man to his home in 2013 and reportedly indecently assaulted him despite resistance; and another incident in 2015 where he raped a political staffer following a parliamentary event. Throughout the trial, Ward maintained that the rape did not occur, and claimed that that the 2013 complainant had misrecall of the events.
However, crown prosecutor Monika Knowles emphasized the compelling consistencies in the accounts provided by both men, indicating that their testimonies—given without prior knowledge of each other's experiences—were credible. "Similar behavior, similar setting, same man, same conclusion. This is not a coincidence," Knowles argued, highlighting the weight of the evidence against Ward.
In light of the guilty verdict, Ward is expected to return to court to receive sentencing later in 2023. The government of NSW had previously contemplated measures to expel him from parliament, but legal counsel advised against such actions due to the potential risk of jeopardizing the trial's fairness.
