A reporter with the ABC has taken the stand at the NSW District Court to detail evidence about one of the complainants who contacted him prior to the Gareth Ward trial into sexual assault allegations.

The trial, which is now in its seventh week, heard from ABC reporter Gavin Coote on Tuesday, who was contacted by a complainant who alleges the Kiama Independent MP indecently assaulted him at his Meroo Meadow property in the Shoalhaven in 2013.

Ward is facing five charges and has pleaded not guilty to each of them: sexual intercourse without consent, common assault and three counts of indecent assault.

The 44-year-old was charged three years ago following complaints against him from a man, aged 24 at the time, over an alleged incident at Potts Point in Sydney’s east a decade ago.

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

Coote told the Court that he had met the younger complainant in 2017 and three years later.

In 2020, after posting a photo of Ward and Keira MP Ryan Park on social media, Coote said the younger complainant contacted him via Instagram.

They arranged to meet in Sydney and Coote told the jury that the man told him about his allegations that Ward had “touched him on the genitals” while he was intoxicated and lying on the grass at his home and later that “he blacked out” when he was in a bedroom and the politician mounted him on a bed.

Coote said he informed the complainant a month later that he would be unable to publish his allegations and that he should contact police.

In May the following year, Ward stepped down from his ministerial position and was dumped by the Liberal Party after it was revealed that he had been charged. He was re-elected as an Independent candidate for Kiama in 2022.

The trial before Judge Shead continues.

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