A Newcastle father jailed for abusing two of his children has been granted leave to appeal against his conviction, arguing his daughter’s multiple personalities should not have been sworn in to give evidence as they were not recognised by law.
In December 2024, a Newcastle District Court jury found the man, who can only be legally referred to as SN, guilty of the child sexual abuse of siblings known to the court as LN and AB.
SN was last year sentenced to 21 years’ jail for abusing the children in several locations in and around Newcastle over a seven-year period ending in 2016.
During a five-week trial, LN, who has been diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder (DID), was sworn in as three separate identities known as alters.
A Newcastle man, whose sexual abuse of his children led to one developing dissociative identity disorder, was sentenced to 21 years in jail in 2025. (ABC News: Mandy Graham)
The case was the first of its kind in Australia.
There was a similar situation in 2019 where another woman had permission to give evidence against her father as different personalities, but no alters were sworn in after her father pleaded guilty mid-trial.
That woman delivered victim impact statements as different alters, a different process to giving evidence.
Grounds of appeal
SN’s legal team is alleging a miscarriage of justice, and the ABC has obtained the six grounds of the appeal.
The first alleges that allowing separate alters to be sworn in was at odds with the law.
“There was an error of law or miscarriage of justice or both in that the trial Judge administered multiple independent affirmations to the complainant LN, purportedly for her to give evidence as … a different personality on each occasion, thereby adopting a procedure as to the swearing or affirming of a witness that was (a) unknown to law, (b) contrary to normal trial practice; and (c) unfairly prejudicial to the accused,” the legal team wrote.
The grounds also allege that Judge Ian Bourke failed to comply with the Evidence Act by taking “unsworn evidence” from a witness.
An artist’s sketch of District Court Judge Ian Bourke, who presided over the trial. (ABC News: Mandy Graham)
The third and fourth grounds of appeal question the weight given to evidence about the diagnosis of DID.
Alleged errors of law
SN’s legal team alleges the jury was given the impression the DID was genuine, when it was the defence case during the trial that LN was feigning her condition.
“The trial miscarried because of the use which the Crown made of the evidence of DID and the directions given by the trial Judge permitting the jury to use it in that way,” they wrote.
A woman known as LN was sworn in as several alters during a landmark trial in Newcastle in 2024. (Unsplash: Matus Kovacovsky)
During the trial, LN gave evidence as a woman in her 30s, a five-year-old child and a 13-year-old-girl.
She called her identities “system members”, created in response to severe, prolonged trauma.
DID questioned
On his final day of cross-examination during the trial, defence barrister Garry Sundstrom put it to LN that she was “playing various parts” when it came to altered identities.
“This has all been controlled and manipulated by you,” he said.
“I suggest you have been playing the parts of alters.”
A hearing is scheduled for SN in November. (ABC News: Jak Rowland)
The witness rejected that suggestion.
“I wish, Garry, but my life wouldn’t be the way it is today if that were true,” she said.
“My life is a sh*tshow.”
SN’s legal team has asked for a panel of five appellant judges, a request that is usually made when significant legal issues need to be considered.
A five-hour hearing is scheduled for the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal in November.
