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  Priests Lose Appeal

Stuff [New Zealand]
August 4, 2005

Former St John of God brothers fighting prosecution for child-sex abuse have lost their Supreme Court bid to have the charges thrown out.

Bernard Kevin McGrath and another former Catholic priest with name suppression appealed to the Supreme Court to overturn charges, alleging the evidence against them was too old to allow them a fair trial, a court judgment said.

But Supreme Court Justices Gault and Tipping said the men must go to trial before they could appeal against any charges.

The former priests were committed to trial on numerous charges of sexual offending against boys aged under 16 between 1968 and 1977, according to the Supreme Court judgment.

Appeals by the men relating to the age of evidence in both the High Court and the Court of Appeal were dismissed before they made their plea to the Supreme Court.

McGrath had been committed for trial on 33 charges of inducing a boy under 16 to do an indecent act, allegedly committed between February and June 1977 when the complainant was a student at Marylands School, Christchurch.

McGrath's lawyer, Nigel Hampton, QC,said his client's appeal process was not finished. He said he had recently lodged an appeal with the Court of Appeal requesting McGrath have a separate trial for each of the dozen or more complainants.

The other accused, whose Supreme Court appeal was dismissed, is also a teacher at the Marylands School. He faces a number of sex charges relating to young boys. His name was suppressed until after any trial.

No date has been set for the two men's High Court trial.