Former Catholic Brother Daniel Slattery of Morisset's Kendall Grange Catholic school to appeal abuse conviction

Daniel Slattery, 68, known as Brother Daniel, was jailed in 2021 for raping and assaulting three boys, then aged nine to 13, more than 40 years ago. The Court of Criminal Appeal, including Chief Justice Andrew Bell, has not sat in Newcastle since 2005.

Slattery is appealing against his conviction for offences committed in the 1980s at the Kendall Grange Catholic school near Morisset.

According to Broken Rites Australia, Kendall Grange was a boarding institution for disadvantaged boys, most with an intellectual disability, set up by the Saint John of God order in Australia in 1947. It became a residential school for boys with behavioural problems in 1980 and was home to men who allege they were sexually abused there from about 1950. It operated until 2001.

Slattery, who joined the order at the age of 18, was convicted by District Court Judge Helen Syme of two counts of buggery, one of attempted buggery and nine of committing an act of indecency against the three boys between January 1980 and December 1980.

His total sentence was 40 years six months, but Justice Syme ordered him to serve a cumulative term of 11 years, against which he filed an appeal in August.

Slattery is appealing his conviction on five grounds, including that the trial miscarried because defence counsel failed to adduce evidence of his good character, and that it failed to put evidence of convictions of dishonesty to complainants in the case.

He also claims that guilty verdicts in respect to some of the counts were not supported by the evidence, or that the verdict was otherwise unreasonable, because the judge failed to "properly consider" identification evidence because one of the complainants said the offending must have happened in 1981 after Slattery had left the school.

According to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Catholic Church claims data shows that 74 people made claims received by the St John of God Brothers, 41 of which alleged sexual abuse at Kendall Grange.

That makes it the order with the highest rate of child sex allegations against its members - more than 40 per cent - of any Catholic order investigated by the child abuse royal commission.

Among the offenders was Brother Bernard Kevin McGrath who is currently serving a sentence that won't end until 2053 when he would be turning 106 years old.

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