Convicted murderer and paedophile Phillip John Smith wants his case shifted from a district court to the High Court.
Phillip Smith Photo: RNZ / Murielle Baker
The case was called briefly today at the High Court in Auckland, where Justice Moore remanded the matter until next month.
Smith was given a life sentence in 1996 for murdering the father of a boy whom he had been sexually abusing.
He fled the country last November while on a three-day release from Spring Hill Prison in Waikato, flying to Chile and then Brazil before being recaptured.
He has denied charges of escaping custody.
His sister, Joanne Barbara Smith, has been charged with assisting him to escape lawful custody.
