KEY POINTS:
Should Glenn McNeill lose the appeal against his conviction for killing Janelle Patton on Norfolk Island, he wants to return to New Zealand to serve his sentence.
McNeill's lawyer John Brown said today the arrangement might take a legislative amendment or inter-governmental agreement.
"But he is a New Zealand citizen, his family's in New Zealand and he would obviously like to be in New Zealand," Mr Brown told Radio New Zealand.
McNeill, 29, was convicted by a Supreme Court jury on Norfolk Island on Friday of the 2002 stabbing of Ms Patton.
He is in prison in Sydney awaiting sentence, but has said he will appeal the conviction.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said there was no legal basis upon which McNeill could serve his sentence in New Zealand.
The only precedent was -- in a reverse situation -- the transfer of the two French agents responsible for the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour in 1985.
Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur were briefly jailed in New Zealand before being transferred to the Hao Atoll in French Polynesia, on condition they spent three years of their 10-year jail terms there.
However, Mafart reportedly developed a mysterious stomach ailment which could not be treated on the atoll and went home after 17 months, while Prieur went back to France after 22 months, apparently because her father had terminal cancer.
Mr Brown said his client was confident of the prospects of the appeal and looked forward to clearing his name.
The appeal would centre on the admissibility of a videotaped confession McNeill made to police when he was arrested, and the directions Chief Justice Mark Weinberg made to the jury.
Mr Brown said the Chief Justice was "very learned and experienced" and the jury "attentive and diligent".
The appeal was "not intended to be critical of any of those," he said.
In the videotaped interview, which was shown to the jury, McNeill said he stabbed Ms Patton after accidentally running her over.
But in an unsworn statement to the court, he told the jury he had not killed the 29-year-old and had been suffering mental health problems when he spoke to police.
McNeill was working as a chef in Nelson when he was arrested in February 2006.
He has two children to his partner, Shelley Hooper, who along with his parents has supported him through the month-long trial.
McNeill is due to be sentenced on Norfolk Island, but an appeal would be heard by the full bench of the Federal Court in Sydney.
- NZPA
