Phillip Smith and sister appear in court

Phillip John Smith is flanked by security guards in the dock at Auckland District Court today. Photo / Dean Purcell

Phillip John Smith has appeared in court in person for the first time since being brought back to the country from Brazil.

He stood in the dock today at Auckland District Court wearing the same red and black Brazilian club football jersey he was deported in, while flanked by Corrections guards in stab-proof vests.

Three other Corrections staff manned exits from the court, three security staff members were also on hand as well as a police officer.

Smith's 33-year-old sister Joanne Barbara Smith - charged with helping him escape lawful custody - also appeared in court and was ordered by Judge Russell Collins to stand on the other side of the room from her brother.

The pair applied to have case transferred to the High Court earlier this morning but Justice Graham Lang adjourned the hearing until May.

Judge Collins was put the case off until after that hearing when there would be greater clarity on where the trial would be heard.

As Smith was led away he winked at his sister.

After today's hearing, Mr Ellis said the High Court was the most appropriate forum for the trial because of the "very unusual" defence of necessity he would use.

He was also looking into whether his client was legally removed from South America.

"There appears to be a proposition in Brazil that you can't send someone back to an overseas country if they've got imprisonment beyond 30 years, as a human rights issue," Mr Ellis said.

"I want to see all the paperwork that went between the police and Brazil."

Smith appeared without his hairpiece today and his lawyer said it was one of many smaller legal battles being fought.

He indicated he would also bring an application before the High Court in a bid to allow media to interview Smith while in custody.

"It will have significant bearing on the rights of the media to interview prisoners," he said.

Smith's lawyer Tony Ellis gave documents to the High Court in support of his application but said they were "too sensitive" to be discussed in open court.

Justice Lang said the case would not be moved to the higher jurisdiction simply because of the intense media interest.

Like her brother, Ms Smith, from Palmerston North pleaded not guilty through her lawyer and elected trial by jury.

She was remanded on bail again today.

Her bail conditions restrict her from contacting her brother or any other police witnesses and she must live in her Highbury home.

Ms Smith hurriedly left court with her hood pulled over her face.She pushed microphones away and swore at media as she was asked for comment.

Phillip Smith allegedly fled to South America while on temporary release from Spring Hill Corrections Facility in South Auckland on November 6. He was serving a life term at the time for the 1995 stabbing murder of the father of a boy he had sexually abused.

At the time, Smith - who had tracked the family down to a Wellington house where they had moved to escape him - was on bail for the sexual offending and charges of blackmail against a man who later killed himself.

He was caught in Rio de Janeiro on November 13 - a week after he left New Zealand last year.

He faces charges of escaping lawful custody and making a false statement to renew a passport.

The court heard today that the trial would likely last 10 days.