Inside the quiet court room where NSW MP Gareth Ward is accused of sexual abuse

Australia Broadcast Center

5 days ago

For two months, a sitting member of the NSW Parliament has been on trial, accused of sexually abusing two young men during his ascendancy to the halls of political power.
Warning: This story contains details of alleged sexual abuse which may distress some readers.
Gareth Ward has pleaded not guilty to five offences, including indecent assault and sexual intercourse without consent.
The 44-year-old is the independent MP for the South Coast seat of Kiama, but he was once a key part of Gladys Berejiklian's Liberal ministry.
Legal rules around protecting victims of sexual crimes meant for weeks the court was closed to the public as the complainants gave evidence.
Even when the court reopened, there were few spectators watching the trial of the once high-profile political figure.
Just the slow rhythm of legal argument unfolding in court — where a man who once held a child protection portfolio sits in the dock, accused of abusing his power behind closed doors.
In court, one of his alleged victims described the feeling more starkly: "I felt basically a vampire was running the blood bank."
As the jury retires, they will turn their attention to the issues of consent and power and decide whose evidence they choose to believe.
The trial centres on two separate complainants.
The first man, then 24, alleges Mr Ward sexually assaulted him at his Potts Point apartment in 2015 after drinks at Parliament House.
The second man says he was 18 when Mr Ward invited him to his home at Meroo Meadow on the South Coast in 2013 and assaulted him while the complainant was drunk and pretending to be asleep on the lawn.
He also alleges that later inside the house, Mr Ward straddled and gave him a massage.
Mr Ward used alcohol, charm and authority to cross physical boundaries, the complainants argued.
They told the jury they stayed in contact with the politician afterwards out of fear, shame and a desire to protect their careers.
Mr Ward has denied the accusations levelled against him, claiming they either never occurred or did not amount to sexual abuse.
The politician has not taken the stand to provide an alternate version of events and the jury was told he was under no obligation to do so.
On his behalf, his legal team argued the accusations levelled against him were distorted by time and alcohol and could not be relied upon.
The younger complainant told the court he was pretending to be passed out on the back lawn of Mr Ward's Meroo Meadow home in February 2013 when the politician first assaulted him.
"I was thinking the prank was going well. I was about to say 'gotcha' and he put his hand down my pants," the man said.
He said Mr Ward then moved his hand to the front of the complainant's shorts, briefly touching his genitals.
The complainant said he then stood up and told Mr Ward he wanted to go to bed and started to walk into the house with the MP just behind him.
He said, once inside, Mr Ward placed his hands on his shoulders and said he was "too drunk to sleep alone", guiding him to the bedroom.
He said he lay facedown on the bed, trying to rationalise the situation as normal, despite feeling unable to say no.
Soon after, he said, Mr Ward got on top of him, straddling his buttocks, and began massaging his lower back without asking.
"He said he'd done a massage course," the complainant testified.
He told the jury he eventually convinced Mr Ward to stop, and when he did, the complainant fell asleep. He left the house the next morning.
He kept the incident a secret for years but broke his silence in 2020 when he discovered the then Liberal politician had been appointed minister for families, communities and disability services.
The older complainant alleges Mr Ward assaulted him in 2015 after a night of drinks at NSW Parliament House.
The political staffer, then 24, said Mr Ward offered him a bed at his Potts Point apartment, joined him uninvited, and sexually assaulted him.
"I said no," he told the jury.
The man said he felt pain and confusion as a result of the alleged assault, but maintained a friendship with the politician in the years that followed out of fear and pragmatism.
The defence highlighted affectionate messages sent by the complainant after the alleged incident, including calling the MP "love", "pet" and "darl".
But the man said he regularly used the terms, borrowed from a 1980s TV show starring Magda Szubanski, and they were intended to avoid tension.
The defence questioned a key investigator, former Detective Senior Constable Cameron Bignell, about several inconsistencies in his investigation and lines of inquiry that were not pursued.
The detective acknowledged there were aspects of the investigation he did not pursue because he "believed the victim" and parts that could have been handled differently.
Throughout the trial, prosecutors have repeatedly returned to the theme of power: how a charismatic politician may have used influence to silence or disarm those around him.
One friend of the older complainant told the court the man confided in him but was scared to report the incident.
"He was worried he'd lose his job," the friend said.
The trial heard from Kristo Langker, producer of friendlyjordies — a YouTube show about Australian culture and political issues.
Mr Langker told the jury he met the younger complainant with host Jordan Shanks after they were contacted in late 2020.
The court heard the complainant told them Mr Ward was "powerful" and that he was afraid to go to the police.
They urged him to report it, saying it wasn't their "domain".
Shortly after, the man also contacted ABC journalist, Gavin Coote, who testified the complainant disclosed an alleged assault that occurred when he was 18, but the journalist said he would not pick up the story.
The trial was initially set to run for four weeks, but repeated delays have caused the case to run into a ninth week.
On some days, the court has sat for just an hour before legal argument has pushed the jury out of the room.
Another interruption came in mid-June, when a water main burst near the Downing Centre and flooded part of the 117-year-old building.
From that point, the case was permanently relocated to Darlinghurst Court House and the aging infrastructure has caused continual interruptions for the endlessly accommodating judge.
The court also lost some hours in the seventh week when one of the key police witnesses failed to return for cross examination.
In closing submissions, the prosecution said Mr Ward had a "tendency" to be sexually interested in young, subordinate men, and to act on that interest.
The prosecution argued both men independently came forward to share strikingly similar allegations of abuse.
Both complainants described being assaulted in similar settings, the court heard, involving alcohol, a power imbalance, and late-night visits to Mr Ward's homes.
Meanwhile, the defence argued that the allegations were shaped by the corrosive effects of time, alcohol, and memory reconstruction.
Mr Ward's barrister David Campbell SC questioned inconsistencies in the complainants' accounts, including conflicting versions of key events, emotional states, and relationships and suggested the jury could not rely on recollections of nights described as heavily intoxicated.
He argued the alleged incident at the Potts Point apartment did not happen and the complainant had likely fallen asleep in a suite at NSW Parliament after drinking at a parliamentary event.
Mr Campbell told the court the alleged back massage at Mr Ward's South Coast home was not indecent, saying offering comfort in that way is not unusual or sexual.
He noted the complainant was lying face down and said it was not unusual for Mr Ward's groin to be near him while straddling.
He then questioned what was indecent or sexual about the contact given the circumstances.
After nine weeks and 35 sitting days, Judge Kara Shead completed her directions, and the jury has started its deliberations in Gareth Ward's sexual assault trial.
Thirteen jurors were empanelled at the start.
One was excluded by ballot, a safeguard for the trial's expected length.
Now, 12 will decide.