🔗 Share this article Previous Australian Lawmaker Imprisoned for More Than Five Years for Criminal Acts The convicted individual was imprisoned for five years and nine months for the sexual abuse of two victims One-time Australian politician sentenced of assaulting two individuals he met through professional activities was given to nearly six years in prison. Trial Information The former official, mid-forties, has been in custody since mid-year after the court found him guilty of attacking a victim and attacking a second person, in different occasions in over two years. The politician acted for the oceanfront municipality of Kiama in the NSW government from the year 2011. He resigned as a government official when the claims emerged in recent years but declined to leave the legislature and returned to office in 2023. Judgment Information Judge the judicial figure considered Ward's disability of legal blindness in the ruling and found "no alternative punishment other than imprisonment would be suitable". Ward, who participated via digital means at the courthouse, will undergo at minimum nearly four years in detention before he can request parole. Justice Shead said the court needs to "send a stern message to potential criminals that illegal behaviors such as this will be faced with significant consequences". Case Background She also said Ward had "escaped justice for multiple years and lived freely without a programme or consequence for the offenses during that period". Following the verdict, the individual initiated a rejected legal bid to stay in his position and resigned just prior to the congress could oust him. Representatives has stated earlier he aims to contest the guilty verdict. Case Facts The defendant's extended court case in the judicial venue learned that he brought a inebriated young adult to his property in 2013 and indecently assaulted him repeatedly, despite resistance attempts to fight back. In 2015, he sexually assaulted a mid-twenties government employee at his property after a gathering at government offices. The defendant had claimed the later assault never occurred, and that the first victim was misremembering their encounter from the earlier year. But the prosecution contended that striking similarities in the accounts of the two men, who were unacquainted with each other, showed they were being honest. The panel considered for three days before delivering the guilty verdicts. The political exit prompted a by-election in Kiama in September, which was secured by the challenger.