Liam Ashley's killer back in court today

The man who killed teenager Liam Ashley in the back of a prison van four years ago is back in the High Court at Auckland today to be sentenced for taking a prison inmate hostage and threatening to kill a prison guard.

George Baker was convicted in August of kidnapping, threatening to kill and assault with an offensive weapon.

He took an elderly prisoner hostage with a weapon in Auckland Prison at Paremoremo on August 27, 2009.

At a separate trial a week earlier he was also found guilty of attempted kidnapping, relating to an incident in a prison van on July 5, 2008.

Baker represented himself at both trials and was not expected to have a lawyer appear for him today although he did have an amicus curiae, Todd Simmonds, at his trials and was likely to have him again today to offer assistance.

Baker is serving a life sentence with minimum 18 years non-parole for strangling and stomping on 17-year-old Ashley.