However, the Solicitor-General said this was not enough, and today at a Court of Appeal hearing in Auckland, the Crown Solicitor at Manukau, Natalie Walker, argued for preventive detention to be imposed.
It would mean Taimo would need to prove he was no longer a risk to the community and could be recalled to prison at any time for the remainder of his life.
Walker told the court Taimo's trial and sentencing judge, Justice Simon Moore, had "understated Mr Taimo's risk of reoffending and overstated his ability to rehabilitate".
In determining the sentence, Justice Moore used a combined starting point of 23 years imprisonment which was reduced for personal factors of remorse, historical abuse suffered by Taimo and ill health.
"You are not an old man in biological years but neither are you young. Your physical health is poor. You suffered a heart attack in 2014 and underwent a triple bypass," he said.
"Without doubt, you have completely destroyed any sense of trust you previously enjoyed within your community. I expect you will be totally and permanently ostracised."
Preventive detention, however, was not imposed by Justice Moore largely because he ruled Taimo would not pose significant risk to the community upon release due to his registration as a child sex offender and the potential for an extended supervision order.
But Walker argued Taimo's risk profile, paedophilia, emotional connection to children, and proximity to children upon release were all reasons for the state to potentially detain him for the rest of his life.
Taimo has been given the specific diagnosis of paedophilia.
His offending, Walker said, was on a "grand scale" and only came to a conclusion in 2016 when Taimo was confronted and arrested.
A "disillusioned community deserves life-long protection from him", she added.
Justice Moore had said Taimo's crimes were "unprecedented in this country" and called the sheer scale extraordinary.
Crown prosecutor Jasper Rhodes, who worked alongside Walker at today's hearing, had already argued for preventive detention at Taimo's sentencing.
"We cannot say that his risk will be reduced at any point in the future," he said at sentencing.
Taimo's defence lawyer Panama Le'au'anae, who continued to act for the sex offender today, argued for a finite sentence.
He had said the Parole Board would rightly act as Taimo's gatekeepers.
"This offending is at the top of the totem pole," Le'au'anae accepted today. "This offending is extreme."
The lawyer said his client "can be categorised as the sexual predator of South Auckland" and has no community support other than some of his close family members.
There was also a "strong possibility" of an extended supervision order to help monitor Taimo upon his release from prison, Le'au'anae said.
Taimo, his counsel added, "even refuses to come out of his cell" because he feels isolated and ostracised.
"By analogy, that is what he will face when he comes out into the community," Le'au'anae said.
The three Court of Appeal judges, Justice Forrie Miller, Justice Mark Woolford and Justice Mary Peters reserved their decision.
During the trial, Taimo claimed his victims were lying.
"It was you [who] the jury determined was a liar," Justice Moore told Taimo at sentencing.
"It now seems you accept, belatedly and only in part, what that procession of courageous young men described."
Throughout his offending, in a "subtle and cynical way", Taimo controlled the boys through bribes or threats, Justice Moore said.
"You knew the boys would never dare complain and even if they did they would never be
believed: the words of a boy pitched against the reputation of a respected senior
community leader.
"They saw you as something of a saviour. You ingratiated your way into their families."
It was no hyperbole to say the offending had devastated the lives of 17 boys and young men, Justice Moore said.
Taimo's offending first came to light when an aunty for one of the boys overheard him "talking to other children about what had happened".
Police were informed in 2016 and further victims were identified and came forward.
Initially, there were nine victims and 53 charges against Taimo, who came to New Zealand from Samoa in 1987.
But after name suppression was lifted and the Herald and other media identified Taimo as the suspect, more victims came forward.
The charges eventually grew to 106 at trial.
Rhodes said there was a "collective undercurrent" that the 17 victims were in fact survivors who refused to have their lives ruined by the offending.
They are strong, proud, and successful men who would overcome their ordeals in spite of Taimo, not because of him, he said.
One victim said to Taimo at sentencing: "How can you call yourself a man of faith? And have the devil dictate your needs?"
One of the survivor's mothers also hoped Taimo would "rot in jail".
"I have never hated something or someone so much," she said.
