Judge Michael Finnane.
AS A younger man he studied to be a Jesuit priest and drafted an Aboriginal land rights policy for Labor's Left faction.
But it is as the state's most punitive District Court judge - the man who jailed the gang rapist Bilal Skaf for 55 years and the paedophile Robert ''Dolly'' Dunn for 30 - that Michael Finnane has made his name.
His reputation has prompted defence lawyers to try in vain to move their clients to other courts, and for good reason.
A Herald analysis of the Court of Criminal Appeal's published decisions since January 2008 shows Judge Finnane is the state's toughest sentencer.
In the past two years, he has had a total of 37 years stripped from his sentences because the state's top criminal court deemed them excessive, at a time when it is increasingly reluctant to do so.
Judge Finnane's decisions were overruled 16 times - 10 of them for excessive sentences.
Also near the top of the list but with fewer years cut from their sentences were Judge Jennifer English and part-time Acting Judge Sir Robert Kynnersley Woods. Together, these three were responsible for 42 decisions being overturned - 17 per cent of the 247 successful appeals published in that period, from more than 600 attempts.
Successful appeals against lenient sentences are fewer because they are more difficult to mount.
But the judge whose sentences were most often increased on appeal was Judge Roy Ellis, 56, a former deputy director of public prosecutions, with a total of four years and nine months added to his sentences.
The equivalent of about 60 full-time judges preside over District Court criminal cases.
Judicial Commission figures show that in 2008 the Court of Criminal Appeal was more reluctant to cut sentences than in any year in the past decade, allowing only 39 per cent of severity appeals. Figures for last year are not yet available but the Public Defenders Office believes the rate fell again.
District Court Chief Judge Reg Blanch and Supreme Court Chief Justice Jim Spigelman declined to comment on the analysis but their spokeswoman said it was simplistic, meaningless and unfair. She said judges Finnane and English handed down probably hundreds of decisions a year and Acting Judge Woods's output was also high despite being part-time.
Sentencing law in NSW was complex and the results could not ''be regarded as indicative or reflective of the output or performance of a judge in any way, especially those who have served for long periods''.
The Attorney-General, John Hatzistergos, also declined to comment but the shadow attorney-general, Greg Smith, said the analysis was ''very useful''. A Coalition government would review sentencing procedure laws because they were not as lenient as many believed and had become so complex they were causing costly errors.
Experts said that complexity and the disposition of some judges were costly.
Appeals can cost more than $10,000, based on three days' preparation, a rate of $800 a day for public defenders and Crown prosecutors, and the salaries of three appeal judges.
jgibson@smh.com.au