Previous Australian Lawmaker Jailed for Above Five Years for Sexual Offenses
An ex- public official convicted of attacking two individuals he met through his position received a sentence to nearly six years in detention.
Legal Proceedings
Gareth Ward, 44, was in jail since last summer after the court found him guilty of sexually assaulting one man and attacking a second person, in separate incidents in 2013 and 2015.
Ward represented the seaside community of Kiama in the New South Wales government from 2011. He resigned as a political party official when the claims emerged in 2021 but declined to leave his seat and was re-elected in last year.
Judgment Information
Judge the court official took into account his visual impairment of sight disability in her sentence and found "no different consequence besides imprisonment would be suitable".
Ward, who was present via digital means at the judicial venue, will complete at least 45 months in prison before he can apply for conditional freedom.
The judge stated the court needs to "deliver a strong warning to like-minded offenders that illegal behaviors such as this will be subject to salutary penalties".
Additional Information
Additionally stated the defendant had "escaped justice for a decade and lived freely free from a rehabilitation program or punishment for his actions during that period".
Following the verdict, the individual launched a unsuccessful court challenge to stay in his position and left office shortly before the legislature could expel him.
Defense attorneys has previously said he plans to challenge the guilty verdict.
Trial Evidence
His lengthy proceedings in the NSW District Court heard that he brought a inebriated teenager to his home in 2013 and sexually abused him three times, despite resistance attempts to resist.
Subsequently, he attacked a young government employee at his property after a function at parliament.
He had maintained the later assault never occurred, and that the additional accuser was misremembering their meeting from the earlier year.
The state's attorneys maintained that striking similarities in the testimonies of the individuals, who did not know the other, demonstrated they were being honest.
Court members considered for 72 hours before returning the guilty verdicts.
The political exit caused a replacement vote in Kiama in autumn, which was won by the Labor candidate.
