James Hayward

Personal life Hayward was born in Derby, Western Australia to father Len and mother Lee Roser, and adopted at birth by Robert (Rob) John Hayward (a metalworker) and Dawn Maree Hayward (a hairdresser).

On 1 October 2002, Hayward married Lee Michelle Hayward née Gouldham in Karratha. They have three sons, three daughters, and four grandchildren. winning a Media Award in 2007.

In 2008 he established his own television production company, Fiery Productions, in the south west town of Bunbury, which went into liquidation in 2021 over an alleged tax debt, equivalent to in .

Member of Bunbury City Council (2013–2021) He joined the National Party of Australia (WA) in 2012. and as the federal vice president of the National Party of Australia.

Member of Western Australian Legislative Council (2021–2023) At the 2021 Western Australian state election, Hayward was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Council as a member for South West.

He was the shadow minister for Local Government, Water, and Regional Cities. Later the same day, he was suspended by the National Party of Australia(WA). The following day, he resigned from the party. In February 2022, Hayward revealed he will not resign from parliament, saying that if he resigned, "it would send a message that any person in public office can be removed by simply making an untested allegation." In June 2022, prosecutors dropped the charge of persistent sexual conduct. He pleaded not guilty to the four remaining charges. However, on 28 August 2023, a jury found him guilty of directing an eight-year-old girl to indecently touch him on two occasions. As the offence has a maximum sentence over five years, he was automatically disqualified from being a member of parliament upon his conviction. This was the first use of the law since 1910.

Criminal investigation and subsequent trial A jury has convicted Hayward, a former MP, of two counts of indecently dealing with a young girl over a period of two years. The girl was aged between six and eight when the offences occurred between 2019 and 2021. The prosecution said the girl's family discovered her browsing pornography on her device in November 2021, which led to her disclosing the abuse by Hayward. The court heard that Hayward sent an email to his wife in which he appeared to confess to the allegations and threatened to kill himself, but he later retracted his statement and denied any wrongdoing. He also denied showing the girl how to access pornography on her iPad. The defence argued that the girl's testimony was unreliable and inconsistent, and that there was no physical evidence to support her claims. Hayward pleaded not guilty to all four charges against him, but the jury found him guilty of two after more than four hours of deliberation. On 16 October 2023, he was sentenced to two years and nine months jail, and had to serve half of that before becoming eligible for parole. Police elected to discontinue the case out of concern for the complainant's welfare.