A bid by the Solicitor-General for an indeterminate sentence for one of the country's worst sex offenders has been dismissed.
Alosio Taimo on trial in the Auckland High Court. Photo: RNZ / Edward Gay
Auckland rugby coach Alosio Taimo was last year found guilty of 95 sex charges relating to 17 boys aged between nine and 16 over three decades.
In February Justice Moore jailed Taimo for 22 years with a minimum non-parole period of 10 years, stopping short of imposing an indefinite sentence of preventive detention.
Taimo will be eligible for parole when he is 66 years old and, if not released earlier, will be 78 when he has served his full prison sentence.
The Solicitor-General took the case to the Court of Appeal, arguing preventive detention was needed to protect the community, and that the High Court judge understated his risk of reoffending.
However, in a decision released today, the Court of Appeal said it had not been persuaded that the prison sentence should be quashed and replaced with preventive detention.
"Although we have disagreed with the Judge's reasons in some respects, we are ultimately not persuaded that he was wrong to conclude that the sentence imposed will provide adequate protection for the community and so must be preferred over preventive detention."