Kiama Independent MP Gareth Ward’s counsel, David Campbell SC, has reminded the jury of the “corrosive effect” of memory over a long period of time as he began his closing statements for the trial on Friday.

Crown Prosecutor Monika Knowles had earlier told the NSW District Court that the similarities between the alleged incidents involving Ward were not a coincidence.

Campbell responded with his closing submission to the trial, which has finished its eighth week before Judge Kara Shead.

He will continue his closing statements to the jury on Monday.

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.

After the Crown Prosecutor told the jury that the two complainants had given “remarkably similar accounts of being assaulted”, Campbell reminded the jury that they did not have to prove that Ward was innocent because that is presumed.

He said Ward, now 44, was still a young man at the time of the alleged incidents and reminded the jury that there is a “corrosive effect” on memory over time, particularly when alcohol is involved, which each complainant admitted was the case in their statements to the Court.

Campbell said the allegation that Ward had performed a massage on one of the complainants was not indecent and said that such activity was often done to calm people down at times of stress.

Earlier, the Crown Prosecutor urged the jury at Darlinghurst Courthouse to convict Ward on the basis that the two complainants had given similar accounts of their experiences with the much older politician which she said was not a coincidence.

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

Knowles said the two men had reasons for the lengthy delay before they each reported their allegations to police, “because the accused is a powerful person”.

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