🔗 Share this article Former Australian Public Figure Imprisoned for Above Five Years for Criminal Acts The former politician has been sentenced for five years and nine months for sexual assaults of two individuals One-time lawmaker found guilty of assaulting two young men he met through work was given to five years and nine months in jail. Case Details Gareth Ward, forty-four, has been in custody since mid-year after judicial panel found him guilty of attacking one man and indecently assaulting a second person, in different occasions in 2013 then 2015. The defendant represented the oceanfront municipality of the district in the NSW parliament from the year 2011. He stepped down as a political party official when accusations emerged in 2021 but declined to leave the legislature and was re-elected in 2023. Court Ruling Justice the court official evaluated his visual impairment of sight disability in the ruling and found "no alternative punishment except for incarceration is appropriate". The convicted individual, who participated via video-link at the judicial venue, will undergo at least nearly four years in custody before he can request conditional freedom. Justice Shead declared the legal system needs to "issue a clear statement to similar individuals that criminal acts like these will be faced with significant consequences". Case Background The judge added the defendant had "evaded consequences for ten years and lived freely absent a programme or punishment for his crimes during that period". Following the verdict, Ward attempted a rejected court challenge to stay in parliament and left office moments before the members could remove him. Defense attorneys has previously said he plans to contest the conviction. Case Facts His nine-week trial in the NSW District Court learned that he asked a inebriated teenager to his property in 2013 and sexually abused him on multiple occasions, despite resistance attempts to resist. In 2015, he raped a young political staffer at his residence after a gathering at the legislature. The defendant had argued the 2015 rape never occurred, and that the first victim was misremembering their encounter from 2013. However, prosecutors contended that notable parallels in the accounts of the individuals, who were unacquainted with one another, showed they were accurate in their accounts. Court members deliberated for three days before announcing the findings of guilt. His departure led to a replacement vote in the district in September, which was won by the opposition party.