NEW ZEALAND
Stuff
04 August 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.