Gareth Ward victim reveals decade of agony as former minister gives reference

Convicted rapist Gareth Ward’s two victims have shared the severe mental health issues, flashbacks and fear they endured since the former state MP assaulted them more than a decade ago.

The moving impact statements emerged in court as documents revealed a former NSW speaker and Liberal minister had given Ward a glowing character reference following his conviction.

Ward, 44, was convicted in July of indecently assaulting a then 18-year-old at his Shoalhaven home in 2013, as well as raping a 24-year-old political staffer at his Potts Point apartment in 2015. He met both through his role as Kiama MP.

Ward remained on bail for five days following the verdict, until it was revoked and he was taken into custody. At a sentence hearing at Parramatta District Court on Friday, a victim impact statement was read on behalf of the Shoalhaven victim.

The man said the “significant psychological trauma” Ward caused included major depression, suicidal ideation and frequent flashbacks.

“In these dreams, I’m often telling myself not to go to his house or not to go to his bedroom, but being unable to change course in these crucial moments,” he said.

“I’ve been haunted by the fact that I went to sleep next to Gareth after the assault … being assaulted by someone I trusted and then being unconscious next to him for a number of hours has left me plagued by disturbing thoughts and doubts that I cannot resolve with certainty.”

At his trial, the jury earlier heard Ward had invited the 18-year-old back to his Meroo Meadow home on the South Coast in February 2013.

The court was told the young man played a prank on the MP, pretending to be passed out on the grass. Ward slid his hands into the man’s shorts and touched his buttocks and genitals.

The man pretended he had been asleep. He was then taken to Ward’s bedroom, being told it was “unsafe” to sleep alone. There, the jury heard, Ward assaulted him again while giving him a lower back massage.

The man’s victim impact statement described drug and alcohol problems stemming from the assault. While now seven years sober, those “lost years” caused enormous harm and instability.

“The police investigation and the court process also had a serious impact on my health,” it read.

“Having it drag on for years meant living in constant anxiety, while also trying to carry on with life as a husband and father.”

Seeing Ward deny the assault to journalists was “devastating” as the victim felt “directly targeted and [it] reinforced my fear that there will be consequences for me having come forward”.

The man said the experience had forced him to become resilient.

Ward faced court via audiovisual link from prison wearing prison greens, flipping through a red book and taking notes.

He looked intently at the camera as the impact statement was read, spending more than 10 minutes on the phone during a brief adjournment.

The second victim, then 24, was assaulted after being invited back to Ward’s Potts Point apartment following a Parliament House event in September 2015, the court heard.

The man rebuffed Ward’s first attempt to kiss him but briefly allowed a second, before saying he wanted to sleep.

The jury heard that Ward showed him to a bedroom, and joined him, before digitally penetrating him while masturbating.

In a victim impact statement tendered to court, the Potts Point victim describes living in “a constant state of mistrust and suspicion” as the rape left him “isolated, confused [and] fearful” and that it had stolen his dreams, his sense of intimacy and, at times, his “will to go on”.

He turned to alcohol to cope and he still struggles with addiction.

“I was raped by a politician—someone entrusted with protecting our most vulnerable,” he said, adding the experience had crushed his dream of excelling in politics.

Ward resigned from NSW parliament last month just as MPs prepared to vote on his expulsion, a move he failed to block in the courts.

In a character reference dated September 12, Shelley Hancock, a former speaker and a former Liberal local government minister, said she had “witnessed more than anyone [Ward’s] passion and commitment for the people he was elected to serve, and I continue to profoundly respect and admire his talent and goodwill to all”.

She described witnessing his “respectful … polite and well-mannered” dealings and “integrity” over time with “both young and old” community members.

“Needless to say, I find most profoundly and sincerely that the offences … are emphatically and completely out of character,” she said. She could “absolutely affirm that Gareth would not be a danger to anyone in the community at all”, she said.

Ward’s barrister David Campbell SC argued Ward faced extra-curial punishment through his “enormous fall from grace” and that his crimes were “opportunistic ... spontaneous”.

However, Crown Prosecutor Monika Knowles said he showed “persistence” towards his victims.

Knowles said the submission that one victim’s behaviour “led to the impression by Mr Ward that he wasn’t quite aware that there was a lack of consent” was “fanciful”.

Regarding the Shoalhaven victim’s mention of Ward’s denial, Campbell said people were entitled to express their views pre-trial and that Ward “still maintains that position to this point”.

While earlier arguing for Ward’s bail to remain, his barrister Ed Anderson said his vision impairment required special technology, unavailable in custody, to prepare for proceedings.

Anderson expressed safety concerns, citing risks of “physical violence or otherwise” due to his high profile.

In revoking Ward’s bail, Judge Kara Shead concluded Ward could still function when wearing glasses and that corrective services could support his vision impairment and safety.

Ward will next face court on October 1.

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