Sitting WA MP James Hayward has elected to give evidence in his own defence against child sex charges, describing the allegations against him as an absolute lie.The Upper House MP is alleged to have indecently dealt with a young girl in the State's south west, but he's told the District court the alleged offences never happened.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 On day three of his trial, it was James Haywood's opportunity to give his side of the story.
00:07 He's accused of getting a young girl to indecently touch him when she was aged between six and
00:12 eight. But when his barrister, Tom Percy, asked him if he'd ever abused the child, he
00:17 replied, "That's an absolute lie. Nothing like that ever happened," testifying, "I've
00:22 never done any indecent acts towards the girl at all." Mr Percy also put to his client that
00:28 he'd shown the girl how to search the internet for pornography, something Mr Haywood also
00:33 described as a "complete and utter lie." Mr Haywood did reveal that after he was elected
00:39 to Parliament, his wife had warned him not to continue to put the child to bed because
00:43 of the potential for allegations to be made against him. But he told the court he believed
00:48 there was absolutely nothing for the girl to complain about because he said there was
00:52 nothing going on. Earlier, the court was shown Mr Haywood's video recorded interview with
00:58 police just hours after he'd sent an email to his wife telling her he was going to be
01:03 facing child sex allegations, which he said he'd done, and that he was going to take his
01:08 own life. But he told the detectives the allegations never happened, and he said he wrote those
01:13 words which he didn't consider to be a confession because he didn't want the girl to be blamed
01:18 for his death. He also said when he sent the email it was a fairly stressful time, particularly
01:24 because he was a member of Parliament. "Whether I'm found guilty or not guilty is irrelevant,"
01:29 he said. "It will end my MP career." Mr Haywood will continue his evidence when the trial
01:35 resumes.
01:35 [BLANK_AUDIO]