A former Australian politician convicted of sexually abusing two young men he met through work has been sentenced to five years and nine months in jail, BBC reported.

Gareth Ward, 44, has been in prison since July after a jury found him guilty of raping one man and indecently assaulting another, in separate incidents in 2013 and 2015.

Ward represented the coastal town of Kiama in the New South Wales (NSW) parliament from 2011. He resigned as a Liberal Party minister when the claims emerged in 2021 but refused to quit parliament and was re-elected in 2023, according to BBC.

Judge Kara Shead SC considered Ward's disability of legal blindness in her sentence and found "no other penalty other than imprisonment is appropriate".