The Parole Board will consider invoking its harshest penalty - a five-year freeze - on a man who kidnapped, raped and murdered a Lower Hutt girl.
Paul Dally has spent the past 26 years behind bars after being handed a life sentence for the abduction, rape, torture and murder of 13-year-old Karla Cardno in 1989.
In a decision released today, the board said the 54 year-old still believed his offending was a random act of violence and did not accept it was premeditated.
However, it said Dally acknowledged he was sexually motivated but denied the level of sexual offending was serious.
The board said there was no question of parole today or in the foreseeable future.
Dally's next hearing is set for November next year, but if the board declines that application they have signalled his next parole date could be postponed for five years, the maximum amount of time it can delay a hearing for.