A NEWCASTLE church youth group leader has been given six more weeks of freedom before he pleads guilty to historical child sexual assault and indecent assault offences and is taken back behind bars to begin serving a "substantial sentence".
After nearly a dozen adjournments, Brett Edward Sorby, 59, was expected to plead guilty when he appeared in Newcastle Local Court on Wednesday.
And if that had happened, prosecutors planned to apply to have him detained immediately while he waits to be sentenced.
But with the alleged victim watching on in the courtroom, Sorby received a reprieve when a magistrate granted one last adjournment.
Sorby, who was in March last year released on strict conditional bail, is currently facing 35 charges, including multiple counts of aggravated sexual intercourse with a person aged between 14 and 16 and aggravated indecent assault on a victim under authority.
He is accused of repeatedly assaulting a young girl over a more than 12-month period in the mid-2000s.
But despite Sorby's guilty pleas being "set in stone", his solicitor, Peter O'Brien, on Wednesday asked for one more adjournment so prosecutors could review proposed amendments to a draft statement of facts and the document could be finalised before Sorby entered pleas.
"It is inevitable that upon these facts being sorted and the charges sorted that any detention application foreshadowed by the Crown will lead to my client being in custody," Mr O'Brien told Magistrate John Chicken. "He will be incarcerated. That makes it immeasurably more difficult to settle facts like this."
Prosecutors were eager to have Sorby enter his pleas on Wednesday and continue negotiating with his lawyers while he was awaiting sentence in Newcastle District Court.
But Mr Chicken said the facts should be finalised now to avoid the possibility of the alleged victim having to give evidence at the sentence hearing.
He said the alleged victim was "anxious" to have the matters finalised to "bring to a close a number of tragic episodes in her life". But said that needed to be weighed against any potential prejudice to Sorby.
"Let's be frank, this is going to be a substantial sentence," Mr Chicken said.
He adjourned the matter for six weeks and Sorby will enter pleas on March 13.
The alleged victim became upset and walked from the courtroom as the matter was being adjourned.
