Retired MP backs rapist ex-colleague as victims lament
Kat Wong |
Victims of a rapist ex-MP have laid bare their suffering as a retired frontbencher backs her disgraced colleague.
Gareth Ward returned to the NSW District Court on Friday for a sentence hearing after the former state families minister was found guilty of sexually assaulting a political staffer in 2015 and sexually abusing a drunken 18-year-old in 2013.
Dressed in prison greens, the 44-year-old watched via video link from jail as his victims lamented his impact on their lives.
“No one has emerged from this without loss,” the former staffer said in his statement.
“If I could speak to my seven-year-old self, I would tell him not to waste his time dreaming of politics.
“Pursuing that path ultimately led me here – a broken, lonely man.”
Former local government minister Shelley Hancock, who worked with Ward on the frontbench under premier Gladys Berejiklian, said he would “not be a danger to anyone in the community”.
“I find most profoundly and sincerely that the offences of which Gareth Ward has been accused are emphatically and completely out of character,” she wrote in her character assessment.
Ward was found to have sexually assaulted an intoxicated political staffer after a mid-week event at NSW parliament house in 2015.
The then-24-year-old victim told jurors the coalition MP climbed into bed with him, groped his backside and sexually assaulted him despite him repeatedly saying “no”.
After reporting his rape, the staffer’s colleagues began avoiding him.
“I could not help feeling it was because I came forward that they were taking the side of my rapist,” he wrote.
“No matter how hard I worked, those in influence would never forgive me reporting one of their own.”
Ward’s first victim, whom Ward plied with drinks before indecently assaulting him three times in one night, said the incident had left him “plagued” by disturbing thoughts.
“I was fearful that Gareth would get to me before I had the chance to give evidence,” he wrote in a statement read to the court.
That fear increased several weeks before the trial while the man was on a walk with his son.
Noticing a voicemail, he listened to the sound of two gunshots.
His fear has even followed him into his dreams, as he periodically experiences flashbacks to the assault.
“In these dreams I am often telling myself not to go to his hour, or not to go to his bedroom, but (am) unable to change course,” he wrote.
He has since developed a sense of strength at the cost of a “numbness, a dulling of my ability to fully experience and enjoy the positive things in life”.
Ward pleaded not guilty at trial, claiming the incidents either didn’t happen or didn’t amount to sexual abuse.
The long-time MP in August narrowly dodged becoming the fifth person expelled from NSW parliament in two centuries by resigning from jail an hour before an expulsion vote.
“Ward has had an enormous fall from grace,” defence lawyer David Campbell SC told the court.
“His standing in the community is shattered, he no longer holds the public position he did, his office as a minister and politician – gone.
“By reason of his conduct, he’s languishing in custody.”
Ward, who is legally blind, also faced greater risks such as falls, confusion and disorientation in prison, his lawyer said.
Prosecutors argued the former cabinet minister, first elected in 2011, faced the consequences of his actions.
“He had his political career at the time of the offences and would’ve been well aware that was in jeopardy,” crown prosecutor Monica Knowles told the court.
Ward moved to the crossbench in 2021 when reports emerged police were investigating sexual crime allegations.
His personal vote was so significant he was re-elected as an independent during the 2023 election despite being suspended from parliament.
Ward is the only non-Labor person to hold the Kiama seat, with Katelin McInerney winning it back for the ALP on Saturday in a by-election.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
AAP
