Crown Prosecutor Monika Knowles has told the NSW District Court that the similarities between the alleged incidents involving Kiama Independent MP Gareth Ward were not a coincidence.

In her closing submission to the trial, which is in its eighth week before Judge Kara Shead, Knowles said on Thursday that the two complainants had given “remarkably similar accounts of being assaulted”.

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.

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

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

The Crown Prosecutor told the jury that both complainants had been drinking at the time and were feeling down about their lives when Ward took advantage of what she described as a “very unequal” relationship in terms of the power dynamic with each younger man.

“It is not a coincidence. There are just too many similarities for that to be the case,” she told the Court.

“These men are not known to each other. They live in different cities. There is no suggestion they have in any way gotten their heads together.

“What happened to them did not happen by random chance or just dumb luck. Similar behaviour, similar setting, same man, same conclusion.”

Knowles said both witnesses were honest and reliable and she said inconsistencies in their recollection of some details were understandable.

“These people weren’t overcome by force. They were taken by surprise,” she added.

Ward’s counsel, David Campbell SC, is expected to deliver his closing statement on Friday.

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