High-paid judges of the Supreme Court – New Zealand’s final appellate court – admit they don’t have enough expertise and experience to hear criminal appeals against sentencing.

Justices Sir Peter Blanchard, Sir Andrew Tipping and Sir John McGrath – who receive minimum salaries of $405,000, plus expenses - reckoned the Court of Appeal was best equipped to tackle sentencing appeals.

They dismissed an application by Kevin Stanton Burdett (44) for leave to appeal against his 28-month jail term for unlawful sexual connection with a 15-year old girl.
Burdett wanted to appeal against the Court of Appeal’s dismissal of his sentencing appeal.

The Supreme Court judges said they lacked the expertise and experience the Court of Appeal had when it came to dealing with sentencing appeals.

They said the primary responsibility for reviewing levels of sentencing rested with the Court of Appeal.

And it would be only in rare cases where some important question of general principle arose that the Supreme Court would deal with a sentencing matter.

The Supreme Court – a court of leave which decides for itself what cases it will or will not hear - delivered 107 decisions between Jan 1 and October 30, according to the Ministry of Justice website.

Many were brief refusals to grant leave to appeal.