Kiama MP Gareth Ward will face a jury trial in Sydney later this month on five charges, including sexual intercourse without consent.

The independent member for the state seat has pleaded not guilty to all five counts, which relate to incidents alleged to have occurred in 2013 and 2015.

He will face Downing Centre District Court on May 26 for what is expected to be a lengthy trial.

The 44-year-old has been Kiama’s state representative in NSW Parliament for the past 14 years and won three elections as a Liberal candidate before he was suspended from Parliament by the party but managed to emerge victorious as an independent at the 2023 poll.

He has been charged following alleged assaults of a 17-year-old at Meroo Meadow in 2013 as well another incident two years later involving a man aged in his 20s in Potts Point.

The sexual assault trial had been scheduled to begin last year but Ward was granted a delay after a last-minute application from his legal team.

Ward faces one count of sexual intercourse without consent, three counts of assault with an act of indecency, and one count of common assault.

He served as the NSW Minister of Families, Communities and Disability Services from April 2019 to May 2021.

NSW Premier Chris Minns in 2023 accepted the recommendations of a report from a parliamentary privileges committee that Ward should not be suspended from Parliament after the previous Coalition government had done so.

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