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NSW Liberal Gareth Ward says he was targeted by blackmailers after ordering massage NSW Liberal Gareth Ward says he was targeted by blackmailers after ordering massage
(about 1 hour later)
A New South Wales Liberal MP was targeted by blackmailers after trying to arrange a massage at his hotel in New York. A New South Wales politician on holiday in New York has told police he became the target of an extortion bid after paying US$100 for a “normal, standard massage” at his hotel.
The member for Kiama, Gareth Ward, requested “a normal massage as people on holidays will often do”. Gareth Ward, the MP for Kiama, said when two men who came to his room at the InterContinental New York Times Square on Tuesday night made clear “more was on offer”, he asked them to leave.
The 36-year-old opened his hotel room door to find two men who told him they were filming, that they were underage and wanted money. They then told the partly undressed MP they were underage, began filming him and threatened to put footage on the internet unless he paid US$1000, Ward told the ABC.
The state government’s parliamentary secretary for the Illawarra told the ABC the men became aggressive when he asked them to leave. Ward, who is blind, said he was “terrified” of being bashed and took the pair downstairs, saying he was going to get money from a bank machine.
Then, according to the New York Post, Ward headed to the hotel lobby – purportedly to get the money – and got help from reception which called police. The men fled. Instead he sought help from a hotel concierge who called police and the men fled.
“I referred these matters straight to the police and they’re now under investigation,” Ward then told Nine Network on Thursday. “The claims requesting a special massage are untrue.” The New York Post quoted unnamed “law enforcement sources” who described Ward, 36, as being the target of a blackmail bid by two unidentified males.
The men reportedly demanded more than US$1,000. Ward had called a number given by an acquaintance to order the massage, sources reportedly told the newspaper.
Ward told both the ABC and the Nine Network the suggestion he had asked for a “special massage” was untrue.
Ward told the ABC he had “requested a normal massage as people on holidays will often do”.
“I asked for a massage but when it became clear that more was on offer I asked them to leave and then they became aggressive, demanding money,” he said. “They said to me, ‘We’re under age, we’ll put this on the internet unless you give us money’.
“I said, ‘I didn’t order this, get out of my room, I want you to leave, I don’t have any cash’.”
A New York police department spokesman told the ABC that investigators had no leads on the identity of the would-be blackmailers, who had fled the scene “empty-handed”.
Ward, a state parliamentary secretary for education and for the Illawarra and the south coast, is reportedly overseas on work but his trip to New York was on personal leave.