Drug dealer loses appeal

An infamous drug dealer who escaped from a top-security prison has been told he cannot appeal against the conviction that put him behind bars 13 years ago.

Brian James Curtis, now 71, was serving an 18-year term for importing LSD when he escaped from Auckland Prison at Paremoremo in 1993.

He was eventually found in the Philippines - with a partner and child - and brought back to New Zealand in 2001. Another 2 1/2 years were added to his sentence because of the escape.

In October 2002, Curtis asked for a rehearing of an appeal he had abandoned 10 years earlier.

But the Court of Appeal at Wellington has refused to let him reopen his appeal against conviction and sentence.

One of the main grounds for wanting to reopen his appeal was that in 1993 an alleged co-offender said Curtis and another man had been wrongly convicted.

That co-offender, Allan Wati, has never given a sworn statement about his version of events.

- NZPA