A man jailed after abducting and molesting a five-year-old girl in a high profile Tauranga case has had his bid for an appeal denied by the Supreme Court.
Tony Douglas Robertson was 19 when he abducted the girl in December 2005, sparking a huge man-hunt after taking her to a remote area near Welcome Bay.
He was jailed the following October for eight years after being found guilty of seven charges, including sexually molesting her and attempting to abduct two other children.
Police believe a local officer, Sergeant Dave Thompson, who acted on gut instinct and hunted Robertson down, finding him and the girl with her underpants removed, saved her from a worse fate.
In August last year, the Court of Appeal dismissed Robertson's appeal against the conviction.
Robertson's lawyer argued a miscarriage of justice had taken place and raised questions about whether the jury could be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Robertson was guilty on all seven charges.
The Supreme Court today rejected Robertson's appeal against the Court of Appeal's decision.
"The sole proposed ground is that the verdicts of the jury were unreasonable," the judgement read.
"The verdicts, far from being unreasonable, were really inevitable on the basis of the evidence."
