Australian politician Gareth Ward found guilty of rape

The new South Wales (NSW) politician was found guilty of a sexual attack on two young people in Australia.

The jury was found by Haret Ward – who still seated MPs of the State Parliament – guilty of three circumstances in an obscene attack and one of the rape articles.

Both victims, who were 18 and 24, said after meeting with 44 years of age through political circles between 2013 and 2015.

Ward resigned as a state minister and a liberal party when the allegations appeared in 2021 but refused to leave the parliament and were re -elected as a member of Kiama in 2023.

The jury was discussed within three days after listening to nine weeks of evidence in the NSW District Court.

In the trial, Ward invited a drunk 18-year-old man to his home in 2013 and was not indecently attacked by him three times, despite attempts to resist.

Two years later, he raped a political officer after the Parliament event.

Ward claimed that the rape of 2015 did not happen, and that another complaint was wrong in their meeting since 2013.

But Monica Crown’s prosecutor said the strange similarity in the reports of two men who did not know each other showed what they were saying the truth.

“Similar behavior, similar institutions, the same conclusion. This is not by chance,” Monik Knowles prosecutor said, local media reported.

Ward will return to court at the end of this year to be convicted.

Earlier, the NSW government was considered a vote for Ward’s expulsion – which was a state deputy since 2011 – from the parliament, but legal advice said it could risk the prejudice of its lawsuit.