MP’s lawyers attack alleged sex abuse victim’s report
Adelaide Lang |
Lawyers for a state MP accused of sexual assault have been accused of hostility while questioning apparent inconsistencies in the alleged victim’s account.
Kiama MP Gareth Ward, 44, is on trial in the NSW District Court after pleading not guilty to sexual intercourse without consent and indecent assault charges.
The jury has been told he approached a young, drunk political staffer after a mid-week event at the NSW Parliament House in 2015 and offered him a place to stay for the night.
The man told the jury on Thursday that taking a taxi to his house after the event would have incurred a costly taxi fare of around $110.
He said he accepted Ward’s offer to stay at his Potts Point apartment, where the politician had poured him drinks and tried to kiss him before climbing into bed with him.
The complainant, aged 24 at the time and now in his 30s, became emotional while alleging Ward had groped his backside and sexually assaulted him despite him repeatedly saying “no” and attempting to move away.
In a video shown to the jury, he told police he and Ward walked through the Domain and stopped for a coffee and banana bread the next morning.
Ward’s barrister David Campbell SC suggested the pair had never stopped for coffee, noting the alleged victim hadn’t mentioned the detail in his statement to police in 2021.
“To the best of my recollection, we did,” the complainant responded.
He also dismissed Mr Campbell’s suggestions he hadn’t walked through the park with Ward or had a conversation with him outside Parliament House, as he previously testified.
The staffer said he believed the sexual assault occurred between July and September 2015, which Mr Campbell noted differed from his previous testimony that he thought it happened in September but wasn’t certain.
“That is me being cautious of your hostile questioning,” the complainant said.
He resisted Mr Campbell’s suggestion that he should be able to recall the date “pretty much to the day” because of the detailed account he gave of the events on the day of the alleged assault.
“Sometimes memories can meld together,” the staffer responded.
He told the jury he was left feeling “dirty” and “confused” after the incident, and continued to ask himself whether he had done something to invite the unwanted advances.
Ward is also accused of indecently assaulting an 18-year-old in 2013 after meeting the man at a networking event on NSW’s south coast a year earlier.
The man claims the MP fondled his buttocks and scrotum, and gave him an unwanted back massage despite his repeated requests to stop.
Ward, who was charged over the alleged assaults in 2022, contests the allegations.
He has held the Kiama electorate since 2011, winning three elections as a Liberal before securing the 2023 poll as an independent.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
AAP
