A former MP who was found guilty of sexually abusing children was given a two-year, nine-month prison term.
The 55-year-old James Dorrin Hayward was found guilty of inciting an eight-year-old girl to touch him indecently twice.
Before he was elected to parliament, the former member of the Nationals upper house mistreated the youngster twice.
The offence was committed, according to evidence presented in court in Perth, when Hayward was putting the girl to bed.
The youngster corroborated the allegations in a police interview and on taped testimony, saying, “James unbuttoned his trousers.”
She added that Hayward instructed her to keep their interactions private.
Hayward’s activities, according to Justice Stephen Lemonis, were a blatant abuse of trust carried out for his own personal enjoyment.
“There is also no indication in the material before me that you have an insight into the causes of this behaviour,” the magistrate stated.
The girl’s mother testified at his trial in August that she had first been unconcerned despite learning that the former television producer had read her bedtime stories frequently.
An investigation was started after the girl’s elder sibling caught her watching animated Family Guy porn on her iPad and said Hayward had abused her and taught her how to find it.
Soon after learning about the accusations, Hayward sent his wife an email that was essentially a “suicide note,” which she promptly forwarded to police out of concern for his safety.
He wrote in it: “In the coming days, I expect to be accused of child sex assault in relation to a child, which I have done” .
He reportedly made reference to his wife’s advice to avoid sleeping with the girl out of fear he may be accused of abuse before the claims were made.
In a police interview, Hayward insisted the message was not a confession and claimed he meant to kill himself to protect himself and the victim’s family from the scrutiny that would come from the public disclosure of the incident.
The confession, according to the former pastor, was intended to prevent his wife from blaming his victim for his passing and preserve the strong bond between the two families.
Hayward also claimed that when he penned the statement, he was stressed out and sad over a failing previous firm that owed the tax agency $440,000.
He was cleared of two more counts of engaging in indecent behaviour with a child under the age of 13, including teaching the minor how to use the internet to look up pornography.
After the allegations were made in 2021, Hayward left the WA Nationals, although he continued to serve as an independent MP in the state’s upper house.
Following his conviction, his position in the WA parliament was legally vacated and he was declared ineligible. After serving 16 and a half months, Hayward will be qualified for parole.
