New South Wales MP Gareth Ward has been found guilty of sexually abusing two young men in 2013 and 2015.
The independent MP for Kiama stood trial in the NSW district court and pleaded not guilty to charges of sexual intercourse without consent and indecent assault.
The jury returned the guilty verdict on Friday afternoon.
Ward was accused of inviting an 18-year-old man to his home on the South Coast of New South Wales in February 2013. The man told the court Ward had plied him with alcohol and then indecently assaulted him three times.
He was also accused of sexually assaulting a 24-year-old political staffer at his apartment in Potts Point in 2015.
The prosecution argued the accounts of the two young men were remarkably similar and were not a coincidence.
The jury deliberated for two and a half days before coming to their guilty verdicts.
The trial ran for nine weeks. Ward will be handed a sentence at a later date.
When the allegations against Ward first came into the public domain, he was a minister in Gladys Berejiklian’s government. He resigned from the Liberal Party in 2021 and moved to the crossbench. He was then suspended from parliament.
In 2023, Ward was re-elected in the seat of Kiama as an independent.