The disgraced former headmaster of an Indigenous school who placed students into choke holds and painfully twisted their ears will appeal his guilty verdict, his lawyer has confirmed.

In October, Gavin Morris, 47, was found guilty of four counts of aggravated assault and not guilty of one count of aggravated assault by Judge Anthony Hopkins in the Alice Springs Local Court. Each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

The former NRL referee was appointed head of Yipirinya School for Indigenous children in Alice Springs in 2022, with reports emerging in 2023 of him assaulting boy students aged between eight and 13, sparking a police investigation.

During submissions on Monday, his lawyer, John Wilson, told the court Mr Morris will appeal the findings.

Mr Wilson said the defence accepted the requirement of his honour to sentence Mr Morris for the serious offending, but called for a wholly suspended sentence or an "intensive" community corrections order — including home detention — if the suspended sentence was not granted.

He argued the offending was an "aberration" that was unlikely to occur again and cited Mr Morris's good character and "wide support network" which would assist his client's rehabilitation.

Citing Bugmy — which requires courts to give significant weight to an offender's background when it involves disadvantage — Mr Wilson highlighted Mr Morris's "challenging" upbringing, which featured violence, emotional neglect and a temporary placement in government care, as well as the "pressure cooker-type environment" of the school.

Mr Morris, for all intents and purposes, would never be able to teach again in the field he loved, Mr Wilson submitted, noting he had suffered vilification and stress due to the "widespread media attention" of the case.

The Crown opposed the call for a community corrections order, with prosecutor James Moore calling it "inadequate". Addressing the Bugmy submission, he argued the offending is "far from a case where there's an appropriate reduction in the moral culpability".

Mr Moore cited the age of the victims, as well as each offence involving "actual violence" on "vulnerable" parts of the body. He said Mr Morris's behaviour was "not out of character", citing the number of offences, and he noted the "traumatic" effect the assaults had on the victims.

"Mr Morris abused his position of trust, power," he said, doing so "over a period of time".

Furthermore, Mr Moore said the "absence of remorse, the absence of insight, the apparent failure to accept responsibility" were all causes for the court's concern.

Judge Hopkins extended Mr Morris's bail until Thursday, when he is set to be sentenced.

In his October findings, Judge Hopkins ruled Mr Morris's use of force could not be justified as defensive conduct or as a means to discipline, manage or control the children.

He said the evidence provided by the boys, other students, teachers, teaching assistants and parents during the hearings was largely credible.

Judge Hopkins found the first charge proven, determining that Mr Morris pulled a 12-year-old boy from a playground fight and placed him in a headlock that caused pain, restricted his breathing, and left him feeling scared.

The boy's parents were distressed by how their son had been treated, and the child refused to return to the school.

The two other proven aggravated assault charges related to Mr Morris grabbing two young boys by the ears and painfully twisting them after they created a mess with paint and glitter at a childcare centre. An assistant teacher who witnessed the incident gave evidence she was so shocked she suffered a panic attack and felt unable to intervene.

A fourth proven charge involved an angry Mr Morris choking a boy who, along with another student, had accessed a locked school hall. The child told the court Mr Morris had called them "little Black c***s", and said he felt afraid he could not breathe in the choke hold.

The fifth charge, which was not proven, involved an allegation that Mr Morris choked an 11-year-old boy in a classroom, with student witnesses testifying that he had called them "Black dogs".

Judge Hopkins said he could not return a guilty verdict on that count due to conflicting evidence between two witnesses and a lack of other significant corroboration.