The 12-member jury in Kiama Independent MP Gareth Ward's trial has found him guilty of sexual intercourse without consent and three counts of indecent assault.

Ward was visibly taken aback when the verdict was read out at Darlinghurst Courthouse after a nine-week trial before Judge Kara Shead.

NSW Premier Chris Minns and Opposition Leader Mark Speakman have called on Ward to resign from Parliament.

The 44-year-old had pleaded not guilty to five charges - the charge of common assault was considered not necessary by the NSW District Court once he was found guilty of the other offences.

He was charged after complaints against Ward from a man, aged 24 at the time, over an incident at Potts Point in Sydney’s east a decade ago.

Ward was also accused of indecently assaulting a recently turned 18-year-old at the politician’s Meroo Meadow home in 2013.

The jury began deliberations on Wednesday morning and after reaching a stalemate, they resumed discussions on Thursday before informing Judge Shead on Friday that they had arrived upon a verdict.

Ward made a hasty exit from the Court, refusing to speak to the media. He will return to court at a later date for sentencing.

Parliament has the power to expel Ward under the NSW Consitution which allows for an MP's seat to be declared vacant if convicted of a crime which carries a jail term of five years or more.

“Mr Ward’s position in the parliament is no longer tenable, and as such we call on him to resign immediately,” a government spokesperson said.

“Should Mr Ward refuse to resign, the government will take steps to protect the Legislative Assembly’s integrity.

“We acknowledge the importance of the justice system - it has delivered a clear and decisive outcome."

The Minns Government praised the victims in this saga “whose strength and courage in coming forward must be recognised and respected”.

Each complainant who reported Ward to police stood by their version of events under cross-examination during the trial with suggestions that they were embellishing their recollections or making them up in the case of the older man from the Potts Point incident.

Speakman issued a statement to say Ward's conduct was a "complete abuse of power".

"The Member for Kiama must resign from Parliament. If Mr Ward does not resign, then upon its resumption the Parliament should swiftly take all appropriate steps to protect its integrity,” he said.

“What any victim of sexual abuse endures is appalling and their strength in coming forward can’t be overstated.

“There is no excuse for the criminal behaviour which the jury has found occurred beyond reasonable doubt - a complete abuse of power which has no place anywhere, let alone by those entrusted by the public to represent them.”

Crown Prosecutor Monika Knowles had told the Court in her closing address last Thursday that the similarities between the alleged incidents involving Ward were not a coincidence.

She told the jury that the two complainants had given “remarkably similar accounts of being assaulted.

Ward was accused of digitally penetrating a political staffer in the Potts Point incident and performing a sex act without the other man's consent.

He was also accused of mounting the 18-year-old in the Shoalhaven incident as he lay face down on a bed to perform a massage and also of touching him on the genitals without consent earlier in the evening while the teenager was lying on the lawn.

In his closing statements, Ward’s counsel, David Campbell SC, had told the Court that police had conducted a flawed investigation.

Campbell accused the police officers who investigated the alleged incidents of holding a bias against Ward.

He has been involved in politics for more than two decades after starting as a Councillor in the Shoalhaven before claiming the state seat of Kiama in 2011 and retaining it ever since, including as an independent, after he left the Liberal Party, at the most recent election in 2022.

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