Disgraced business tycoon Ron Brierley is unfit to plead or be tried on charges of possessing child abuse material due to deteriorating cognitive function, a Sydney court has been told.

The 88-year-old was charged in March with three counts of the offence, about three years after an appeals court overturned a previous jail term for similar offending because of his ill-health and conditions in custody.

Brierley was handed that sentence after he was stopped at Sydney Airport in 2019 and eventually pleaded guilty.

When authorities examined his devices, they found child abuse material, and Brierley initially said he had downloaded it for recreation because it "looked interesting".

They found more material on other devices in his Point Piper home, ultimately determining there were more than

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