James Hayward: Dumped WA upper house MP has child sex charges dropped, blasts ‘botched prosecution’

The former WA Nationals MP who won an appeal against his convictions for child sex crimes will not face a retrial after the charges were dropped. James Hayward was found guilty in August 2023 of directing a young girl to indecently touch him on two occasions when she was aged between six and eight in January 2019 and November 2021. He was handed a term of two years and nine months, and booted out of Parliament. Last month he won an appeal against his convictions and was granted bail ahead of a retrial. He had argued the judge presiding over a hearing before the trial had failed to exclude evidence that he said had been “obtained unfairly”. And at a trial listing hearing in the District Court of WA on Friday, the case was discontinued, with prosecutor Sean Stocks confirming the contentious issue was the child witness interview — a key part of the State’s case. A retrial would have involved re-interviewing the girl and her family were “of the view that it would be adverse to compel her to go through that one more time”, Mr Stocks said. It was not in the public interest to proceed, he added. Outside court, Mr Hayward said he was relieved that his ordeal had come to an end. “It’s taken me 1195 days to finally walk out of this building a free and innocent man, and it has been a terrible and very difficult journey,” he told reporters. “Every man in this State should be absolutely terrified by what has happened to me. “You cannot defend yourself against these types of accusations. “I’ve been subjected to a relentless attack on my character.” The father of six lashed the Director of Public Prosecutions, accusing the DPP of knowing there were “problems with this case right from the start”. “They’re the ones that pushed ahead knowing that their case was not correct, knowing that they had not abided by the law in terms of how they had conducted their interview with the child,” he said. The Court of Appeal is set to publish the reasons for judgment in his favour on Tuesday. Mr Hayward said his argument had centred around the child, in the video recorded interview, being “under the tables, couldn’t be seen”. “And how the interview was conducted, the way that the police officer spoke to the child, the things that she said,” he said. Mr Hayward said he was “fully vindicated” legally but “people have long memories, and there’s been a lot of things said over the time”. “It’ll be difficult to shake those things, but in reality, I can walk with my head held high, and I will do,” he said. “I had to do 410 days in prison to finally clear my name.” At his 2023 trial, the jury was shown an email Mr Hayward sent to his wife on December 1 – a week after the girl complained to police – in which he wrote he felt he had no other choice but to take his life. He wrote he was expecting to be charged with the offences over “coming days”, adding “which I have done”, with a sad face emoji. Mr Stocks, who was the prosecutor at trial, described it as a “private confession”. But Mr Hayward argued he had been deeply depressed, under immense financial pressure, didn’t want his wife to blame the girl for his death and wanted to prevent a “painful and prolonged criminal process”. “All I’m going to say about that is, we talk about mental health in this State and then someone has a mental health crisis, and we want to take something out of that and then use it against them in a court case,” he said on Friday. “That note was ridiculous and stupid, I should never have written it, but I was not in my right mind. “I was in the midst trying to take my own life.” The former TV producer has previously said he would ask State Parliament to allow him to “return to Parliament under parliamentary privilege and have a valedictory speech”. He said he had now done so but there didn’t seem “a great appetite there to do it”. “I’ve got some important things I would like to say about this ... what’s occurred to me. “This trial was marred by negligence, really, and poor decision making and political interference, and some of those things need to be aired.” Premier Roger Cook said he did not believe there was “a mechanism for him to be able to come back”. “But that’s a matter for the Legislative Council,” Mr Cook told reporters. Asked if he would seek compensation, the 55-year-old replied he could “only fight one battle at a time”. Lifeline 13 11 14