Sex attacker loses appeal bid

A man serving 16 years in prison for manslaughter, rape and underage sex has been refused the right to appeal against his conviction for sexually violating a seven-year-old girl.

Basil Steven Marshall Mist, 23, had sought leave to appeal against his conviction for sexually attacking the girl, his neighbour.

But the Court of Appeal has refused the appeal application because it was filed eight months after the appeal deadline lapsed.

Mist could yet be sentenced to preventive detention.

The Court of Appeal has yet to rule on a Crown request to jail him indefinitely.

Mist, from Palmerston North, was sentenced to 16 years in prison for raping a 12-year-old girl, sexually violating the seven-year-old, the rape and sexual violation of a 14-year-old girl, and two charges of having sex with underage girls.

He is also serving a 10-year sentence for the manslaughter of his 17-year-old partner Barbara Miller, who died from inhaling her vomit after Mist knocked her unconscious in a March 2002 attack.

Mist was convicted on two counts of sexually violating the seven-year-old in 1999.

The offences happened in Mist's bedroom after he told Miss Miller and the girl's mother to leave the house.

He sought leave to appeal against one of the convictions.

The Court of Appeal, in a decision issued yesterday, refused him leave to appeal.

- NZPA