A former brother at one of the most notorious Catholic boys' homes in the country, known as 'the house of evil', has had one of his historical child sexual assault convictions quashed on appeal, but failed in his bid to have the other 11 overturned.
Daniel Slattery, now 69, faced a special hearing in Newcastle District Court in 2021 after he was found unfit to plead to a number of historical child sexual assault offences due to "aggressive Parkinson's disease".
The charges related to Slattery abusing three boys, then aged nine to 13, at Kendall Grange Catholic school, a boarding school for boys with intellectual needs or behavioural issues, near Morisset more than 40 years ago.
A focus of his defence during the special hearing was that the victims were mistaken about the identity of their abuser and it was, in fact, Bernard Kevin McGrath, another Brother at the notorious boarding school, who is currently behind bars until 2053.
At the conclusion of the evidence, Judge Helen Syme found Slattery guilty of 12 counts, including buggery and indecent assault, and imposed what is called a "limiting term" - a period during which he can be detained - of 11 years and six months.
Slattery appealed against Judge Syme's guilty verdicts on a number of grounds and faced a hearing in the Court of Criminal Appeal in Newcastle in December last year, the first time the state's highest court has sat in Newcastle since 2005.
Slattery's lawyers appealed his convictions on five grounds, including that the trial miscarried because defence counsel failed to adduce evidence of his good character and failed to put evidence of convictions of dishonesty to complainants in the case.
They also attacked the credibility of some of his victims and pointed to what they said were "key inconsistencies" in their evidence.
The Court of Criminal Appeal published it's judgment on Friday, quashing one count of sexual assault because they found the alleged conduct occurred after Slattery had left the school.
"Whilst I do not doubt for one moment that [the complainant] was sexually abused in the way he has described, there is room for doubt as to the identity of his assailant, because of the problematic evidence as to timing," Justice Helen Wilson said in the judgment. "The appellant must have the benefit of that doubt."
But the CCA dismissed the appeal in relation to the remaining 11 counts, finding, the limited evidence provided no reasonable doubt that it was Slattery who committed the sexual assaults.
As of the hearing in December last year, Slattery was in a facility and not in jail after being referred to the Mental Health Review Tribunal.
His lawyers have said he will never be fit to stand trial and that means he must serve the full sentence of 11 and a half years.
After dismissing the appeal, the CCA invited the parties to file submissions about any change in the limiting term that Slattery currently faces.
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