THE state's highest court will sit in Newcastle in December for only the second time since 2005 when the three-judge panel will determine one of the Hunter's biggest cases in recent memory.
The Newcastle Herald revealed last month that lawyers for Sayle Kenneth Newson, convicted of murdering Carly McBride, had filed their all grounds appeal and submissions to the Court of Criminal Appeal, arguing the 46-year-old should be acquitted or a new trial ordered due to what they say were errors made by the judge, including not allowing the defence to explore an alleged "financial motive" of a key witness.
And it has now been confirmed that the CCA will hear the all grounds appeal during sittings in Newcastle in December.
The CCA sat in Newcastle in December, 2022, for the first time since 2005.
Newson was in 2021 found guilty of murdering Ms McBride, the jury left with no doubt he was the person who intercepted the 31-year-old after she left a visit with her daughter at Muswellbrook on September 30, 2014, and inflicted a number of blows to her head and back before dumping her body near the side of a lonely stretch of road outside Scone.
Ms McBride's skeletal remains were not found until August, 2016.
Newson, who had been in a brief relationship with Ms McBride at the time of her murder, was later jailed for a maximum of 27 years, with a non-parole period of 19 years and nine months, making him eligible for parole in August 2038.
As soon as the guilty verdict was read, Newson protested his innocence, telling the jury: "Youse have got it wrong (sic). I'm innocent. I didn't do it."
Newson's lawyers, led by Sydney barrister Winston Terracini, SC, and Newcastle solicitor Mark Ramsland, filed a notice of intention to appeal the conviction as far back as 2021.
The Newcastle Herald revealed last month that Newson's legal team had filed the all grounds appeal and submissions, listing eight grounds of appeal that argue Newson's conviction should be overturned and that his sentence was manifestly excessive.
The grounds of appeal include that the trial judge, Justice Mark Ierace, SC, erred in a number of ways, including not admitting tendency evidence, not giving the jury a dedicated inferences direction in a "purely circumstantial case", not leaving manslaughter to the jury in the alternative to murder and not allowing the defence to cross-examine a key witness about what they claim was "dishonest conduct".
On the defence case at trial, that key witness was the last person to see Ms McBride alive.
Newson's lawyers said they were restricted from cross-examining that witness about what they said were "dishonest" dealings with Centrelink that the defence say could have provided a "financial motive" for killing Ms McBride.
The final ground of appeal against Newson's conviction is that the verdict is unreasonable or cannot be supported having regard to the evidence.
As well as the conviction appeal, Newson's lawyers filed an appeal against the severity of his maximum 27-year sentence and say Justice Ierace erred in determining Newson intended to kill Ms McBride in light of the prosecution relying only upon an intention to cause grievous bodily harm.
They also say the judge made an error when assessing the "objective seriousness" of the murder and that the sentence is manifestly excessive.
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