“The offender’s acts were deliberate and predatory in all the circumstances”.
Ward had already spent three months in custody on remand following his conviction by a 12-person jury, who sat through a nine-week trial and deliberated for nearly three days.
He resigned from parliament from within Hunter Correctional Centre near Cessnock, hours before a scheduled parliamentary expulsion vote against him.
In February 2013, Ward assaulted the then-18-year-old at the then-Liberal MP’s Meroo Meadow home on the South Coast, where he plied his victim with drinks.
He slid his hands into the man’s shorts and touched his buttocks and genitals in the backyard and assaulted him a third time on a bed inside the home after the young man said he wanted to sleep – despite requests to stop.
Two years later, Ward raped a 24-year-old political staffer at his inner-city Sydney apartment following a NSW Parliament House event. Ward climbed into bed with him, groped his backside and sexually assaulted him in the face of repeated resistance.
Gareth Ward outside court in July.Credit: Louise Kennerley
In victim impact statements earlier tendered to court, both men testified the power imbalances they faced – one being a political staffer and another being a young man awaiting Young Liberals membership approval – left them fearful to come forward.
The then-18 year-old described the debilitating drug and alcohol problems that followed, causing instability and harm to his loved ones, until he became sober seven years ago. He said frequent flashbacks endured to this day.
Alcohol was also a form of self-medication for the then-24-year-old victim, who still struggles with addiction. He described living in “a constant state of mistrust and suspicion”, and that being raped by “someone entrusted with protecting our most vulnerable” destroyed his dream of excelling in politics.
The assaults first emerged as accusations when Ward was families, communities and disability services minister during Gladys Berejiklian’s second term as premier.
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He resigned from the Liberal Party in May 2021, and was suspended from parliament after moving to the crossbench, but returned following his re-election as an independent in his South Coast seat in 2023.
The convicted rapist faced a maximum jail term of 14 years imprisonment for sexual intercourse without consent and five years for the indecent assaults.
In arguing for a lighter sentence, Ward’s barrister David Campbell SC said his client faced extra punishment through his “enormous fall from grace”, that the legal process had been “very humiliating” and that his crimes were “spontaneous”.
In earlier arguing for bail ahead of sentencing, Campbell said Ward was at risk of “physical violence or otherwise” in custody due to his public status, but Crown Prosecutor Monika Knowles said prisons were well-equipped to manage safety issues.
More to come.
If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault or family violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732. In an emergency contact 000.
