KEY POINTS:
An Auckland man who admitted a barbaric attack on an elderly woman before setting fire to her home has been sent to prison indefinitely.
Brett Wellm, 44, was sentenced to preventive detention when he appeared in the High Court at Auckland today.
The sentence followed Wellm's attack in November last year on Francis Gavin, 83, at her longtime home in suburban Howick.
Wellm had committed a string of violent offences prior to his attack on Ms Gavin and Justice Rhys Harrison said Wellm was beyond reformation.
He said Wellm's attack showed sadistic cruelty on a scale beyond comprehension and society needed to be protected from him.
The charges against Wellm included attempted murder, arson, threatening to kill and aggravated burglary.
- NZPA
