A former minister in Australia’s New South Wales (NSW) state government has been charged with sexually abusing a man and a teenage boy, police confirmed on Tuesday.
Gareth Ward, now an independent MP, has been charged with three counts of assault with an act of indecency and one count of sexual intercourse without consent and common assault, said the police.
The charges relate to incidents involving a 27-year-old man and 17-year-old boy, with the police alleging the crimes to have been committed in 2013 and 2015.
"Police will allege in court that the man indecently assaulted a 17-year-old boy at [NSW suburb] Meroo Meadow in February 2013, and sexually abused a 27-year-old man in Sydney in September 2015," NSW Police said in a statement.
Mr Ward, the member of Kiama, a former Liberal frontbencher, attended Oak Flats police station on the South Coast on Tuesday, where he was charged and granted conditional bail. He is due to appear before the Port Kembla Local Court on 18 May, reported the Age.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the former state minister denied the charges, adding that he is looking forward to proving his innocence during the trial.
"I will be instructing my lawyers to seek to bring this matter before the courts as quickly as possible and I look forward to demonstrating my innocence there," he said on Tuesday.
“While others have already attempted to prosecute my case in the media rather than the courts, out of respect for our system of justice I will not be doing the same.
“Accordingly, I will be making no further comment at this time.”
Meanwhile, the NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet said that he may seek a motion to remove Mr Ward from the state’s parliament, if he did not resign voluntarily.
“While Mr Ward is entitled to the presumption of innocence, as any citizen is, the standards expected of an elected member of parliament are not compatible with the seriousness of the charges he is facing,” Mr Perrottet said in a statement.
“Following discussion with the acting premier, I have therefore attempted to contact the Kiama MP to seek his resignation from the parliament with immediate effect.
“Should Mr Ward not resign, the government will move a motion to remove him from the parliament.”
The premier has also written to the Liberal Party’s state director asking Mr Ward to be suspended from the party pending the outcome of the criminal case against him.
Mr Ward was earlier serving as the minister for families, communities and disability services and moved to the crossbench in May last year, after he revealed that he was being probed by the police into a sexual abuse allegation.
