Neilson taken off criminal matters

A Sydney judge has been suspended from presiding over new criminal cases until an investigation into his comments about incest and homosexuality is complete.

Chief Judge of the District Court, Justice Reg Blanch, says Judge Garry Neilson won't be sitting on any criminal cases until this matter is determined by the Judicial Commission.

Judge Neilson, aged in his 60s, has come under fire after saying the community may no longer see sexual contact between siblings and between adults and children as unnatural or taboo, just as homosexuality is now widely accepted.

The comments were reportedly made in April during the case of a 58-year-old man charged with repeatedly raping his younger sister in the family's western Sydney home in 1981.