Man loses appeal against sentence

Ishrat "Mike" Malik was jailed in March at the High Court in Auckland for life imprisonment with the prospect of parole only after 18 and a half years. Photo / Sarah Ivey

A man who stabbed his wife and daughter to death in a frenzied attack after they planned to move away from him has lost an appeal against his sentence.

Ishrat "Mike" Malik, 57, was jailed in March at the High Court in Auckland for life imprisonment with the prospect of parole only after 18 and a half years.

Justice Simon Moore said the murders were committed with a "high degree of brutality and callousness" and rejected the assertion he was remorseful.

On the morning of May 19 last year, Malik took a knife and in a frenzy stabbed his wife Farhat Ranan to death in the bedroom of their Ranui home.

She suffered more than 20 wounds all over her body.

Malik then turned the knife on his 18-year-old daughter Sidra Noor Malik, who was in her bedroom downstairs.

Malik appealed against the length of his sentence at the Court of Appeal.

But in a judgement released today, appeal judges dismissed the action.

The Court of Appeal judges rejected claims by Malik's lawyer that his starting point of 21 years' imprisonment was too high, saying it was "broadly consistent" with other cases.

They noted the killings were "brutal and exceptionally callous".

"We find the starting point of 21 years unexceptional. Indeed, it could have been higher," the judge concluded.