Darren Turk, 54, Etchingham Paedophile, committed suicide while on trial for 16 charges related to acts against boys at Frewen College in Northiam, East Sussex, from 1996 to 2002.
Darren Turk was convicted of 10 of the 16 charges.
Judges deferred their ruling after considering a request for authorisation to appeal the conviction.
An unmarried Darren Turk is believed to be the first individual in England convicted of charges posthumously.
Darren Turk was a member of the care staff and later head of care at the boarding school, but he was not a teacher.
At the Court of Appeal’s criminal division in London, the appeal case was brought by his mother, Jasmine Botting, 76, from Etchingham, who has maintained his innocence.
Sally-Ann Hales QC, representing Mrs Botting, told Sir Brian Leveson, Mr Justice Jay and Mr Justice Garnham that the application concerned the effect of her son’s death on criminal proceedings in the crown court “and in particular the validity of guilty verdicts returned by the jury after his death”.
She submitted that criminal proceedings should abate on the death of an accused at whatever stage the trial has reached.
Sir Brian said the case raised a “fundamental issue of criminal law”.
‘Matter of criminal law’
He said: “We can recognise that for the victims, the pronouncement of the verdicts, at least in certain cases, was a vindication of their evidence.”
But he emphasised: “Nothing we decide in any sense should be taken as removing their appropriate feelings of vindication.”
The court had to decide whether “as a matter of criminal law and practice, it is either justifiable or right that once a defendant has died the case should continue in any form”.
The judges reserved their decision, which will be given on a date to be announced.
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