Convicted serial rapist Malcolm Rewa has had his parole declined at his first hearing before the New Zealand Parole Board.
Rewa was sentenced to 22 years in prison for the rape of more than 20 women in 1998.
On May 9 this year he also failed in a bid to block a third trial over the murder of Susan Burdett.
Ms Burdett, 39, was found raped and bludgeoned to death in her home in 1992, and two juries could previously not decide whether Mr Rewa was guilty of murdering Ms Burdett, with a stay of proceedings issued.
Another man, Teina Pora, was convicted for the crime but his convictions were quashed by the Privy Council in 2015.
The NZ Parole Board’s chairperson, Justice Gendall, has directed that the written decision rejecting Mr Rewa's parole from the May 15 hearing will not be publicly released.
Mr Rewa's next parole hearing has been set for April 2020, in line with the statutory cycle.
Rewa's fight to block third trial for murder of Susan Burdett
Rewa is due to stand trial again in February next year after the deputy Solicitor General sought to remove the stay.
That was challenged in a judicial review, but Chief High Court Judge Justice Venning on May 9 ruled the trial can go ahead.
Justice Venning said it was up to the Attorney General to grant and lift stays and while the court can review the decision, it has declined to do so in the Rewa case.
In a hearing at the High Court in Auckland last earlier this month, Rewa's lawyer Paul Chambers said there was no explicit law allowing the stay to be reversed.
He argued the High Court had jurisdiction over the case and there needed to be a formal process to lift the stay rather than the prerogative of the Attorney General.
He said an application would need to be made to the Court and in that case it was for the Crown to prove something had changed that justified a third trial - such as new evidence.
The lawyer for the Crown and Attorney General, Gareth Kayes, said it was important not to confuse a stay put in place by the Attorney General with one imposed by the High Court.
He argued the High Court had no way to rule over the Attorney General process and the stay power wasn't limited by what was written in the law.
Mr Chambers has said if his judicial review failed he would apply to stay proceedings under the Court's jurisdiction and have Rewa's charges dismissed.
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