Former New South Wales Liberal minister and independent Kiama MP Gareth Ward has been sentenced to five years and nine months in jail for sexually abusing two young men.<\/p>\n
In July Ward was found guilty of sexual intercourse without consent and three counts of indecent assault.<\/p>\n
Sexual assault\u00a0support lines:<\/p>\n
The 44-year-old appeared via audiovisual link from a Hunter correctional facility as Judge Kara Shead handed down the sentence in the Parramatta District Court.<\/p>\n
The drawn-out case was further delayed when the scheduled sentencing was postponed to allow more legal argument.<\/p>\n
The sentence was put off until today after debate about whether Ward should be sentenced under current laws or those in place when the offences occurred in 2013 and 2015.<\/p>\n
Ward was given a non-parole period of three years and nine months.<\/p>\n
If you or anyone you know needs help:Suicide Call Back Service<\/a> on 1300 659 467Lifeline<\/a> on 13 11 14Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander crisis support line 13YARN<\/a>\u00a0on 13 92 76Kids Helpline<\/a> on 1800 551 800Beyond Blue<\/a> on 1300 224 636Headspace<\/a> on 1800 650 890ReachOut<\/a> at au.reachout.com<\/a>MensLine Australia<\/a> on 1300 789 978QLife 1800 184 527<\/a><\/p>\n During the sentencing hearing in September, the older of the two victims said the assault left him traumatised and suicidal.<\/p>\n He described years of depression, flashbacks and substance abuse triggered by the attack.<\/p>\n The younger victim said the rape had destroyed his trust, friendships and will to go on.<\/p>\n Ward’s lawyers argued his legal blindness and public fall from grace should mitigate his punishment.<\/p>\n His legal team has told the court he intends to appeal the convictions.<\/p>\n Loading<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former New South Wales Liberal minister and independent Kiama MP Gareth Ward has been sentenced to five years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,149418,22540,22542,22541,44,149417,149416],"class_list":["post-252166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fareth-ward-sentence","tag-gareth-ward","tag-gareth-ward-guilty","tag-kiama-mp","tag-news","tag-parramatta-district-court","tag-politician-sexual-abuse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}