Former Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn hopes to be released before he is convicted of the murder of elderly camper Carol Clay.
The 57-year-old appeared in the Victorian Supreme Court on Friday, where Justice Michael Croucher heard the convicted killer had been the victim of attacks in prison during his six-week trial.
Lynn was found guilty last month of the murder of Mrs Clay, but not guilty of the murder of her secret lover Russell Hill.
The court heard that Lynn’s lawyer Dermot Dann, KC, is preparing submissions calling on Judge Croucher to adjourn his client’s sentencing until the Court of Appeal has heard an appeal against his conviction.
The unusual Section 309 of the Criminal Procedure Act has only been successfully argued once: seven years ago before Judge Croucher himself, during the infamous Brett Whiteley art fraud case.
Mr Dann told the court he would find it difficult to convict his client because of what he described as the “unsafe guilty verdict” returned by Lynn’s jury at the trial.
The court heard Lynn had been placed in isolation at the Metropolitan Remand Prison for his own safety, but now fears he will be targeted by inmates in whatever prison he ends up in.
Greg Lynn has become the target of inmates in prison
According to Mr Dann, the problem was compounded after the verdict by the number of media reports revealing all the evidence that had not been shown to the jury.
“It is an extremely rare request,” Mr Dann said.
If the stay of sentence is granted, Lynn can apply for bail while her appeal is heard in court.
Mr Dann said a successful appeal could lead to Lynn being released altogether, without a new trial, as he fears he will never get a fair trial due to the negative publicity surrounding his murder conviction.
“The chance of a fair new trial is zero,” Dann said.
The veteran attorney said any jury would be “polluted or poisoned” by the flood of “inadmissible evidence” that has “flooded” news sites in the weeks since the jury’s verdict.
The court heard that Mr Dann believed his client had several grounds for appealing his sentence, including the “unfair” manner in which he claimed the prosecution had conducted the trial.
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