The judge would not accept a plea today in the case of a 44-year-old St. John’s man accused of child luring because the man wasn’t in court.

Scott MacLellan was arrested by the Combined Forces team in November. The charges date back to Spring 2017. He is charged with luring a child and making arrangements to commit a sexual offence against a child. He was released from custody on strict conditions.

MacLellan was not in court today.

His defence lawyer asked the court to enter not guilty pleas on all counts, and set dates for a trial by judge alone. However without MacLellan in court, the judge would not enter a plea, and instead set the matter over to the next arraignment date.

In the meantime the court scheduled a three-day trial for February 2020.

At a previous court date the judge granted MacLellan a three-month delay in his case to sell his home in order to hire a private defence lawyer.