Dean Stewart Cameron has been sentenced to preventive detention for the rape and murder of 15-year-old Christchurch schoolgirl Marie Davis.
Justice Lester Chisholm said 39-year-old Cameron had shown no remorse for his crime, which he personally found "despicable".
He sentenced Cameron to preventive detention on both the rape and the
murder charges, with non-parole periods of 10 and 19 years respectively.
The Crown had sought a preventive detention sentence as Cameron has raped before.
Marie disappeared from her suburban Papanui home on April 5 last year after being dropped off by a friend's mother.
Her body was found almost two weeks later, submerged in the Waimakariri River north of Christchurch.
In sentencing, Justice Chisholm said Cameron had attacked Marie in her home, where she was entitled to feel safe.
He said the community had agonised over Marie's disappearance for 12 days and that after her body was found the community shared the "unbridled anger at the murder of this young woman" with Marie's family and friends.
Justice Chisholm said Cameron's offending had struck at the very heart of the community and was "every parent's worst nightmare".
Both Marie's mother Janet and her sister Amy read victim impact statements to the court.
Janet Davis said Cameron had destroyed her family for no good reason.
"I know it's real. I know it's happened. I know she is dead. But I don't know why it happened," she said.
"I will always feel anger and hatred and bitterness towards Dean Cameron."
Outside court, she said she was pleased with the sentence but still angry at Cameron's lack of remorse.
"He's kind of got what he deserves but it's never going to bring Marie back."
She said she was glad to have had the chance to speak to Cameron directly in court today.
"It was really hard doing it but he had to hear from Amy and I," she said.
Marie's sister Amy also said she was happy with the verdict but described Cameron's lack of remorse as disgusting.
"He's not human in my eyes at all. He's just an animal," she said.
Cameron has indicated he is likely to appeal the sentence.
