Ross Giblin/Stuff Smith then sought leave to appeal to the Supreme Court. In their decision, Justices William Young, Susan Glazebrook and Mark O’Regan found there was evidence that a published interview would cause distress to Smith’s victims. They upheld the Court of Appeal’s decision that withholding approval for the interview was not a “disproportionate limit on the Smith’s right to freedom of expression”, when balanced against the impact on the victims. In 1996, he was sentenced to life in prison for murder, paedophile offending, aggravated burglary and kidnapping. He had molested a 13-year-old boy over a three-year period, and later stabbed the boy's father to death.