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The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal for a lesser sentence by George Baker for killing teenager Liam Ashley, saying his 18-year non-parole term was "well merited".
Baker admitted murdering 17-year-old Ashley, who died after being severely beaten as the pair travelled in the back of a security van together to the Auckland Remand Centre last year.
Baker argued the non-parole term adopted by the sentencing judge was too long and took the case through to the Supreme Court after the Appeal Court turned him down. The country's highest court released a judgment yesterday saying the sentence was warranted and the status quo would remain.
"No question of general sentencing principle arises nor is there any appearance of a miscarriage of justice in the sentence imposed," the decision from Supreme Court Justices Peter Blanchard, Andrew Tipping and John McGrath said.
"Indeed, it was well merited for a very brutal and cowardly murder of a vulnerable youth."
When Baker was sentenced, the judge adopted a starting point of 20-years with no parole but reduced it by two years to take into account his early guilty plea.
The justices said the judge could well have adopted a higher starting point for non-parole.
Baker initially appealed against his conviction as well as his sentence but ended up only pursuing the latter.
"I'm not trying to make out that I'm the victim here, I know I'm not the victim," Baker said in June.
"It's just ... I talked to my mum and she just felt the sentence was too much."
Before he died, Ashley was being taken to prison after his parents said they did not want him released on bail on a car-stealing charge and wanted him to experience the effects of breaking the law as an adult.
His death provoked outrage about younger prisoners being transported with adults and resulted in five separate inquiries, including a damning review by the Ombudsmen.
The Corrections Department has subsequently made changes to the way prisoners are transported.
- NZPA
