A NSW Liberal MP and party spokesman on youth issues has been hit with a string of charges relating to an alleged assault on a teenage boy in 2017.

The member for Pittwater, Rory Amon, was arrested on Friday morning at Manly Police Station and charged with 10 offences.

They are five counts of sexual intercourse with a person over 10 and under 14, two of attempting sexual intercourse with a child over 10 under 14, two of indecently assaulting a person under 16 and committing an act of indecency with a person under 16.

Detectives started an investigation in June 2022 after reports of an alleged sexual assault in Mona Vale, which is within Amon’s electorate on Sydney’s northern beaches, five years earlier.

They were told a teenage boy had been sexually assaulted by a man known to him.

A strike force was set up in March 2023, the same month Amon was elected to parliament.

The 35-year-old was granted police bail with strict conditions. He is scheduled to face court for the first time on the charges on September 18.

However, lawyers for the first-term MP fronted Manly Local Court on Friday after lodging an application to have his identity suppressed, a bid they later abandoned.

Amon has been quick to rise in the Liberal Party and went straight to Opposition Leader Mark Speakman’s leadership team after his election. His posts have included stints as shadow assistant minister for youth, infrastructure, and transport and roads.

Amon’s term in the roles was listed on the NSW parliamentary website as ending on Friday, the day the charges became made public.

Speakman confirmed on Friday that Amon was no longer a Liberal Party member and hand tendered his resignation as an MP.

“The charges laid against Mr Rory Amon are extremely serious. The alleged conduct strikes at the heart of the standards expected of members of parliament,” he said.

“Upon learning of these charges, I asked for and received Mr Amon’s immediate resignation from the Liberal Party. While Mr Amon is entitled to the presumption of innocence, a criminal trial will be some time away, and in the meantime, the citizens of Pittwater are entitled to have a member of Parliament who can discharge their duties in the community fully.”

Speakman said he’d make no further comment, as the matter was before the courts.

Amon narrowly scraped over the line to win the northern Sydney seat – long coveted by the Liberals. He beat teal challenger Jacqui Scruby with 50.66 per cent of the two-party preferred vote.

He was a Northern Beaches councillor from 2017-2023 before entering state politics.

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-with AAP