Brett David Hill, the predator who kidnapped and sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl at Adamstown Heights last year, has pleaded guilty to the remaining charges against him.
Hill was expected to face trial in Newcastle District Court this week, but proceedings were delayed after he was hospitalised on Sunday and was not brought to court by corrective services on Tuesday.
Hill's defence barrister, Andrew Norrie, and Crown prosecutor Lee Carr, SC, engaged in "discussions" on Wednesday morning and, after a delay, Hill was re-arraigned and pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated sexual assault with a victim under the age of 16.
After Hill entered the pleas, Mr Carr withdrew four other charges.
He will be sentenced in December and is facing decades behind bars.
Hill, 48, had already pleaded guilty to detaining the girl as she was walking through Hudson Park about 9.15am on June 12, 2018 and sexually assaulting her a number of times, including at an unknown bush location.
But he had pleaded not guilty to a number of other more serious sexual assault allegations stemming from the five-hour abduction, which were to be the subject of the trial this week.
Hill's defence were last month granted an application for a judge-alone trial due to the amount of publicity the case has garnered since the girl was kidnapped and Hill was arrested and charged.
And as part of pre-trial argument, Judge Ian Bourke, SC, granted a prosecution application to include in the trial "tendency evidence", ruling that evidence relating to the charges that Hill has admitted should be admissible in the trial for the charges that he denies.
But ultimately the trial resolved on Wednesday with Hill's late guilty pleas.
However, Hill's pleas did not spare the young girl from having to come to court and give evidence.
The girl had already given her evidence during a pre-recording, a method routinely used for child victims and complainants of sexual assault.
More to come.
