IN CASE YOU MISSED IT; Harvey Weinstein ‘seriously contemplating' testifying at own rape trial
Harvey Weinstein is deliberating whether to take the stand as his trial on rape and criminal sexual charges winds down. "We're going to make a game time decision," his lawyer, Arthur Aidala, told reporters outside the courtroom on Thursday. Weinstein did not testify as part of his 2020 trial in New York, nor did he testify at his California case for sexual assault. Aidala noted that the decision to testify is ultimately up to his client and that one of his partners had spent the majority of the past weekend prepping Weinstein for possibly taking the stand.
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ABC News
25 minutes ago
- ABC News
Alleged victim defends calling NSW MP Gareth Ward 'love' after alleged sexual assault
A political staffer has told a trial he was "overcompensating" when he referred to former NSW minister Gareth Ward as "love", more than a year after he was allegedly sexually assaulted by Mr Ward. The member for the NSW South Coast seat of Kiama Gareth Ward is standing trial accused of sexually abusing two men, aged 18 and 24, during two separate incidents in 2015 and 2013. Last week the court heard from the 24-year-old man who alleged he was raped by Mr Ward inside the politician's Potts Point apartment in September 2015. At the start of the second week of the trial in the NSW District Court in Sydney, defence barrister David Campbell SC cross-examined the man. He told the court about messages exchanged between the alleged victim and ward in 2016 and 2017. The court heard the complainant sent a text message to the accused in early 2017, in which he referred to the MP as "love". "Why did you use the word 'love?" Mr Campbell asked. "I often use words like 'love' and 'dear' to everyone in my circle … it's just something that I do. It's not love as in physical love," he responded. Mr Campbell told the term was a "form of endearment". "This is not the language used when feeling uncomfortable, or someone who said they had been sexually assaulted without consent," he said. The complainant responded that "they may have been words used by somebody who is overcompensating". The court heard the complainant had only brief encounters with Mr Ward following the alleged assault. The man was also asked about whether he recalled attending a party. "I don't recall," the man responded. "What I want to suggest is it's the sort of occurrence that wouldn't slip from your mind later. Do you have a problem with your memory?" Mr Campbell asked. "I don't think so, this was nine years ago," the man replied. The trial continues.
News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
‘Endearing' messages read in Kiama MP Gareth Ward's criminal trial
A political staffer who alleges Kiama MP Gareth Ward sexually abused him has told a court that he spent months 'looking over his shoulder' after the alleged assault despite sending him 'endearing' messages. Mr Ward, 43, is facing a four-week criminal trial in the Downing Centre District Court over allegations he sexually abused two young men. The NSW independent MP was charged in March 2022 with three counts of assault with act of indecency, an alternative charge of common assault against an 18-year-old man at Meroo Meadow in 2013, and intercourse without consent against a 24-year-old man in Potts Point in 2015. He has pleaded not guilty to each of the five charges. Mr Ward arrived in court on Monday for the second week of the criminal trial before Judge Kara Shead SC. The first complainant, a man who was aged 24 at the time of the alleged assault, again took the stand to give evidence in a cross-examination by defence solicitor David Campbell SC. Mr Campbell asked the man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, about an RSVP to a party in 2016. The man said he 'did not recall' either sending an RSVP or even attending the party. However, Mr Campbell put to the man that it would be 'extraordinary' for him not to remember attending such an event, given how he previously told the court that he felt 'uncomfortable' towards Mr Ward at the time. 'Until today I haven't recalled attending,' the man replied, noting it was almost 10 years ago. The man's memory again came under question when Mr Campbell asked him about further communications with Mr Ward in the months following the alleged assault. A series of Facebook messages were read out in court between the complainant and Mr Ward. In the messages, the man refers to Mr Ward as 'love', along with a smiley face, and asks him how his night was. Mr Campbell said the term 'love' was 'an expression of endearment', which he suggested was not the sort of dialogue one would use when feeling 'uncomfortable'. The man replied that he often referred to others, as well as colleagues, as 'love' or 'dear' and perhaps he was 'overcompensating' at the time. During the time of the messages in the months following the alleged assault the man told the court that he felt a 'little uncomfortable'. 'What do you mean by that?' Mr Campbell asked. 'Having to be alert made me uncomfortable … when you're looking over your shoulder, you often felt uncomfortable,' the man replied. The cross-examination is expected to continue on Monday afternoon. The man had earlier told the court that he attended an event on the night of the alleged assault at NSW Parliament House in 2015 before heading back to Mr Ward's apartment. The man said he had drunk 'three or four glasses of white wine' at the event and was trying to organise a cab ride home when he ran into Mr Ward. The pair had a brief conversation before Mr Ward allegedly invited the man to his office at Parliament House where he poured the staffer another wine. The man told Mr Ward that he had to leave as he lived 'a long way away', to which the MP offered the 24-year-old to stay at his place that night, the court was told. The pair allegedly walked to Mr Ward's apartment in Potts Point, and along the way Mr Ward continued telling the man about 'how bright' his future was, the court was told. Back at Mr Ward's apartment, the MP poured the man another drink before allegedly attempting to kiss him on his balcony, to which the political staffer pushed him away and said 'no'. Mr Ward leaned in again a short time later and kissed the man before the 24-year-old said he wanted to go to bed, the court was told. The Crown alleges the man was shown to his room by Mr Ward, who had allegedly stripped down to his boxers. Mr Ward allegedly put an arm over the man and his hands on the man's buttocks before he was told to stop. Without warning, it's alleged Mr Ward digitally penetrated him before allegedly kissing his neck and masturbating. The two maintained a professional relationship for some time after the alleged events, the court was told. The man made a formal statement years later to police, and Mr Ward was formally charged in March 2022. In her opening address last week, Crown prosecutor Monika Knowles alleged that Mr Ward indecently assaulted another man, who had just turned 18, at his home on the South Coast in February 2013. Beginning his political career in 2011, Mr Ward was a councillor on the Shoalhaven Council before becoming the Liberal member for Kiama in 2011, a seat he has held since. The trial continues.
The Age
an hour ago
- The Age
What happens to men who have caused harm to women?
A number of prominent Australian men – including Supreme Court judges – attended a recent launch of a book by supposedly 'disgraced' former High Court judge Dyson Heydon. In 2020, Heydon was found by an independent High Court inquiry to have sexually harassed six young female associates. Heydon maintains his innocence. None of this is any surprise. Donald Trump has been found guilty in a civil court of sexual misconduct, and was subsequently returned to the White House by voters. The longstanding myth that being accused of (or even found to have committed) sexual harassment ruins your career and life forever is being publicly and repeatedly debunked. This is a reminder that the people who subject others to sexual harassment or perpetrate sexual assault are often normal people embedded in and atop the fabric of our society, not outcast from it. So, what do we actually want from men who have been found to have caused harm? Is it punishment, rehabilitation, or both? How do we measure what level of social ostracism it would take for them to not harm again? Should victim satisfaction or future behaviour be the focal point of these reflections? Power and entitlement are the bedrock of all forms of sexual harassment and assault. Powerful people have access to subordinates and have seen institutions or circles they are part of routinely protect their own kind, while silencing victims. This creates a sense of legal and reputational immunity (one that is often proven correct), and contributes to levels of entitlement that manifest as their prerogative to the bodies of others. One of the criminal justice system's greatest failings in addressing sexual harm is its all-or-nothing approach – unable to reckon with the complexity of human experience and interpersonal harm. The criminal system was designed by men, for men, when sexual harm was an act of 'damaging' another man's 'property'. We still lack a socially acceptable form of accountability outside the criminal system, a system many victims avoid, not just because of its traumatising process or the slim chance of a conviction, but because many do not want their perpetrators jailed, especially when they are friends, mentors or colleagues. The problem here is that each victim will have their own threshold for what constitutes justice. Loading Some perpetrators face social consequences for their actions – terminated or forced resignations from positions, exclusion from parties, or reputational damage – but when you're close to the harm, it feels irrelevant compared with the gravity of consequences for the victim. Both things can be true: accountability can exist in public form (generally, men fear this), and yet this can feel painfully insufficient to those who bore the impact (generally, women resent this). However, it must not be forgotten that the question of accountability is only being explored at all because Heydon was found by a High Court inquiry to have committed the actions he was accused of. I wonder whether, had the standard of proof in this inquiry been 'beyond reasonable doubt', the women who spoke up would be branded as 'attention-seeking liars'. The reality was the same, regardless, but the finding is what has shaped the public narrative.
