Gareth Ward, an independent member of the New South Wales Parliament, was found guilty Friday of raping a man and sexually assaulting another in two separate incidents that occurred years apart.
A jury at the Downing Centre District Court in Sydney convicted Ward, 44, of one count of sexual intercourse without consent involving a 24-year-old man in 2015 and three counts of indecent assault against an 18-year-old man in 2013.
Prosecutors said the two complainants, who did not know each other, described strikingly similar encounters with Ward, then a Liberal MP. “Similar behaviour, similar setting, same man, same conclusion. This is not a coincidence,” Crown prosecutor Monika Knowles told the jury, according to The Independent.
Ward, who continues to deny the charges, claimed the 2015 incident “did not happen” and alleged that the 2013 encounter was misrepresented. His defence team argued that the accusations were fabricated.
The court heard that in 2013, Ward invited a teenage man — who had been drinking — to his South Coast home and assaulted him three times despite his resistance. In 2015, prosecutors said Ward raped a staff member who was intoxicated after an event at the NSW Parliament House.
Ward, who was first elected to parliament in 2011 as a Liberal, served as a minister after the 2019 state election. He left the party in 2021 after disclosing that he was under investigation and was later re-elected as an independent in 2023.
He has been granted bail and is currently residing at one of his two homes.
A court will decide next Wednesday whether he will be taken into custody, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
PNN
