SENTENCING of Riverina child sex offender Victor Madeley has been delayed until May after a change in legal representation.
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The 81-year-old pleaded guilty in Wagga District Court last December to 15 offences against boys under the age of 16.
Madeley used his position as a leader of the Church of England Boys Society in a district town to offend against the boys between 1974 and 1979.
Madeley was not a cleric, but was a lay person involved in church activities.
Judge Deborah Payne in December placed a non-publication order on the name of the town where Madeley accosted the boys in order to protect the identity of the six known victims.
Judge Payne reinforced that order on Monday when Madeley’s case was mentioned by solicitor David Barron.
Mr Barron told the court he had just been assigned the case by the Legal Aid Commission after Madeley was granted further legal aid last week.
Last month, the lawyers who had been representing Madeley – barrister Alan Blackman and Wagga solicitor Selwyn Hausman – were granted leave by Judge Gordon Lerve to withdraw from the case when it was in the court list for sentencing.
In seeking leave to withdraw, Mr Blackman said he and Mr Hausman had ethical problems with the case.
Mr Blackman did not say what the problems were.
Mr Barron on Monday told Judge Payne he would have to take affidavits from Mr Blackman and Mr Hausman and then take further instructions from Madeley.
“It’s unlikely this matter will be ready to progress in this sittings,” Mr Barron said.
Judge Payne stood the case over until the May sittings of Wagga District Court.
Madeley remains in custody ahead of sentencing.
In other courts news, former Griffith man Daniel Lico pleaded guilty in Wagga District Court on Monday to supplying 1000 ecstasy tablets in Griffith between June 6 and June 22, 2016.
Lico also pleaded guilty to a separate charge of supplying 35.73 grams of ecstasy between May 31, 2016, and June 16, 2016, and to a charge of supplying methamphetamine on three or more occasions within 30 days.
Judge Payne ordered a pre-sentence report be prepared on Lico and stood the case over for sentencing during Wagga District Court’s May sittings.
Lico was arrested last August as part of a special police investigation into illegal drug supply in Griffith.