Previous Down Under Public Figure Jailed for Above Five Years for Sexual Offenses
An ex- Australian politician sentenced of sexually abusing two individuals connected through work was given to five years and nine months in detention.
Case Details
Gareth Ward, forty-four, has been in jail since July after judicial panel found him guilty of attacking a victim and sexually abusing another, in separate incidents in 2013 and 2015.
Ward served the coastal town of the regional area in the New South Wales legislature from 2011. He resigned as a government cabinet member when the claims came to light in recent years but refused to quit the legislature and was re-elected in 2023.
Judgment Information
Justice Kara Shead considered his visual impairment of legal blindness in the ruling and found "no other penalty except for detention would be suitable".
The convicted individual, who participated via video-link at the judicial venue, will serve at no less than three years and nine months in prison before he can seek parole.
Justice Shead stated the legal system needs to "send a stern message to like-minded offenders that criminal acts of this nature will be faced with salutary penalties".
Further Details
Additionally stated the convicted man had "avoided punishment for ten years and lived freely free from a treatment or punishment for the offenses during that time".
Post-trial, the individual attempted a unsuccessful legal bid to stay in his position and stepped down moments before the members could remove him.
His legal team has stated earlier he aims to challenge the ruling.
Case Facts
His nine-week trial in the state court learned that he invited a inebriated young adult to his property in 2013 and indecently assaulted him three times, despite resistance attempts to resist.
Two years later, he raped a mid-twenties government employee at his property after a function at parliament.
He had maintained the later assault didn't happen, and that the other complainant was inaccurate regarding their meeting from 2013.
However, prosecutors maintained that striking similarities in the testimonies of the individuals, who did not know each other, showed they were accurate in their accounts.
A jury considered for three days before returning the guilty verdicts.
The political exit caused a by-election in the district in last fall, which was secured by the challenger.
