Australian MP Found Guilty of Rape and Sexual Assault

Strategic Insights -

Independent MP for Kiama, Gareth Ward, was convicted of raping a 24-year-old man and sexually assaulting a teenager in separate incidents in 2013 and 2015. The jury at the Downing Centre District Court found Ward, 44, guilty of three counts of assault with an act of indecency against an 18-year-old man and one count of intercourse without consent against the 24-year-old man. Ward, a former Liberal minister, denied the allegations and was granted conditional bail to reside at one of his two homes.

Key Takeaways:

  • Gareth Ward, the independent MP for Kiama, was found guilty of raping a 24-year-old man and sexually assaulting a teenager in separate incidents in 2013 and 2015.
  • The jury at the Downing Centre District Court convicted Ward of three counts of assault with an act of indecency against an 18-year-old man and one count of intercourse without consent against the 24-year-old man.
  • Ward, a former Liberal minister, denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty to all counts.
  • The prosecution argued that the accounts of both men, who didn't know each other, were remarkably similar, while the defence claimed the allegations were false.
  • Ward was accused of inviting the drunk teenager to his South Coast home in February 2013 and assaulting him three times in one night despite the young man's attempts to resist.
  • Two years later, Ward raped an intoxicated staffer after an event at the NSW Parliament House.
  • Ward claimed the 2015 rape never took place and that the other complainant was misremembering their encounter from 2013.
  • Mark Speakman, leader of the opposition in the NSW assembly, said he would respect the verdict and the robust process that delivered it.
  • Ward resigned from both the ministry and the Liberal Party in May 2021 after disclosing he was the subject of a police investigation.

Statistics:

  • One in five women and one in 20 men in England and Wales will have experienced some form of rape in their lifetime (Source: Rape Crisis)
  • In 2019-2020, 36% of women and 6% of men who experienced rape or sexual assault did not report it to the police (Source: Rape Crisis)
  • The average age of first experience of sexual abuse is between 8 and 13 years old (Source: Rape Crisis)
  • There were 229 reported cases of rape in the Kiama region in 2020 (Source: NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research)
  • The Crown will make a detention application next Wednesday to seek further action against Ward.

Sources:

  • "Independent MP for Kiama found guilty of rape and assault" by Australian Broadcasting Corporation
  • "Rape Crisis" at www.rapecrisis.org.uk
  • "NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research" at www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au