Previous Down Under Public Figure Jailed for Over Five Years for Criminal Acts
An ex- Australian politician found guilty of assaulting two individuals he met through his position received a sentence to five years and nine months in prison.
Case Details
Gareth Ward, 44, remained in jail since last summer after a jury found him guilty of sexually assaulting an individual and sexually abusing another individual, in multiple events in over two years.
The politician represented the coastal town of the district in the NSW parliament from the year 2011. He resigned as a government official when the claims surfaced in 2021 but refused to quit parliament and won again in 2023.
Judgment Information
The presiding officer the court official considered his visual impairment of vision impairment in the ruling and concluded "no alternative punishment besides imprisonment could be considered".
The convicted individual, who appeared via remote connection at the courthouse, will complete at least three years and nine months in detention before he can request conditional freedom.
Justice Shead stated the court needs to "issue a clear statement to like-minded offenders that criminal acts like these will be met with serious punishments".
Further Details
Additionally stated the convicted man had "evaded consequences for a decade and lived freely free from a programme or penalty for his crimes during that period".
After his conviction, Ward launched a rejected appeal attempt to continue in his position and stepped down just prior to the legislature could expel him.
His legal team has previously said he aims to challenge the ruling.
Incident Details
The defendant's extended court case in the NSW District Court learned that he invited a intoxicated teenager to his home in 2013 and indecently assaulted him three times, despite resistance attempts to resist.
In 2015, he sexually assaulted a young government employee at his property after an event at government offices.
Ward had argued the later assault didn't happen, and that the other complainant was misremembering their encounter from the first incident.
But the prosecution maintained that striking similarities in the statements of the two men, who did not know the other, proved they were being honest.
Court members considered for multiple days before delivering the findings of guilt.
His departure prompted a replacement vote in Kiama in autumn, which was claimed by the challenger.
