A grieving mother has hit out at Victoria's top prosecutors for accepting a deal that allowed her daughter's killer to escape a murder trial.
Mehmet Bugra Torun, 26, was jailed for eight years for the manslaughter of Kara Doyle, who died in hospital days after he shot her in the groin with a sawn-off shotgun.
Torun must serve a minimum five years, meaning he could walk free from prison by age 30.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on Tuesday lost a bid to increase Torun's jail term, with three Victorian Court of Appeal judges unanimously dismissing the appeal.
Torun had originally been charged with murder over the April 2013 shooting, but the DPP accepted his guilty plea to manslaughter before his trial.
Ms Doyle's mother, Jenny Doyle, criticised the move to accept the plea.
"We're very disappointed. At the time we were ill-advised," she said outside the Victorian Court of Appeal on Tuesday.
"We hoped for (a murder trial) at the start, but, like I said, we were ill-advised of what the outcomes could've been.
"We always stick by the people who know, the lawyers, the barristers ... they're the ones who know the system, not us."
Jenny Doyle said she expected Torun to serve at least 10 years in jail.
Ice addict Torun was waving the gun around telling a story when he aimed it at Ms Doyle, his girlfriend, and pulled the trigger without realising it was loaded.
Victorian Court of Appeal Justice David Ashley said the DPP's appeal was "neither soundly framed nor soundly pursued".
The DPP argued in its appeal the sentencing judge did not give regard to the ongoing domestic violence to which Ms Doyle was subjected by Torun.
But Justice Ashley said that prosecutor Peter Rose SC never mentioned domestic violence in the plea hearing before Torun was sentenced.
Court of Appeal Justices Simon Whelan and David Beach agreed with Justice Ashley and dismissed the appeal, saying prosecutors could not rely on Torun's history of violence once they accepted his manslaughter plea.
"The prior conduct of Mr Torun towards Ms Doyle may have been centrally relevant to the case when the charge was murder, but once the manslaughter plea was accepted its relevance was much more limited," they said in their judgment.
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