A man convicted on drugs and rape charges six years ago has had his bid to take an appeal to the Supreme Court dismissed.
Gary Maui Isherwood, 32, was found guilty in April 2004 in the High Court at Christchurch of administering drugs and raping an 18-year-old girl in July 2003.
Isherwood was sentenced to preventive detention with a minimum non-parole term of 10 years for two counts of administering a class B drug, kidnapping, four counts of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection and three of rape.
He went to the Court of Appeal which quashed the preventive detention sentence in relation to drug offending but otherwise dismissed Isherwood's sentence appeal.
Isherwood then sought leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.
His lawyer, Tony Ellis, is challenging New Zealand's preventive detention regime, saying it is arbitrary.
Mr Ellis drew attention to cases where there was a law change with retrospective effect after a prison sentence had been handed down.
But the Supreme Court's decision, issued today by Justice Peter Blanchard, Justice John McGrath and Justice William Young, said Isherwood was not "affected by any retrospective amendment to the law extending the term of his sentence."
The court also found there was "nothing in the recent decision casting any doubt on New Zealand's preventive detention regime".
Isherwood was previously given an eight-year sentence in 1999 for getting a 14-year-old schoolgirl hooked on drugs so he could run her as a prostitute and reoffended only three weeks after his release.
Isherwood along with a co-offender Hartley lost a previous appeal against conviction in March 2005.
