Teina Pora makes another bid for freedom

Teina Pora in the Auckland High Court for a bail hearing earlier this month. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Convicted murderer Teina Pora is appearing before the Parole Board in his latest bid for freedom.

Pora, 38, has spent 21 years behind bars for the 1992 rape and murder of Susan Burdett in Auckland.

Pora had sought bail ahead of his Privy Council appeal against his conviction later this year.

The High Court ruled on Friday that it did not have jurisdiction to grant bail to a prisoner pending an appeal to the Privy Council.

At his first trial in 1994, Pora was found guilty of the murder of Ms Burdett, who was beaten with a softball bat in the bedroom of her south Auckland home in 1992.

Pora had confessed to police but a retrial was ordered as doubts began to emerge about his involvement.

However, at the retrial in 2000, Pora was again found guilty.

After Pora's first trial, serial rapist Malcolm Rewa was convicted of raping Ms Burdett.

His DNA was found at the scene and at Pora's re-trial the Crown argued the two acted together.

But Pora's lawyer Jonathan Krebs said that ignored the fact they were associated with rival gangs and that Rewa had an erectile dysfunction problem.

That the re-trial jury was not told of Rewa's problem was down to error on the part of Pora's then lawyer, he said.

Pora is due to face the Privy Council in October or November.