Graeme Burton

Auckland, Feb 19 NZPA - Double murderer Graeme Burton has been handed a sentence of preventive detention for attempting to murder a fellow prison inmate.

Burton, 39, was last year been found guilty of attempting to murder Dwayne Marsh at Auckland Prison at Paremoremo in December 2008.

Burton stabbed Marsh several times with a sharpened steel rod. One strike penetrated Marsh's heart and he required emergency surgery to save his life.

He was already serving preventive detention with a minimum non-parole period of 26 years for the murder of Lower Hutt man Karl Kuchenbecker in January 2007 while he was on parole.

Justice Tony Randerson sentenced Burton in the High Court at Auckland today to preventive detention, with a minimum non-parole period of 10 years for the attack on Marsh.

The sentence will be served concurrently with the one he received for Mr Kuchenbecker's murder, but the Parole Board can take today's sentence into account when Burton is eligible for parole in 2033.

Justice Randerson said Burton's propensity for violence continued unabated and he showed indifference to the consequences of his offending.