Lawyers for convicted wife killer Des Campbell have opened his appeal against his murder conviction by attacking the same crown witness criticised in the infamous Gordon Wood case.
Campbell was found guilty in 2010 of murdering his 49-year-old wife Janet Campbell by pushing her off a 50-metre cliff in the Royal National Park, south of Sydney, in March 2005.
The Crown says Campbell pushed Mrs Campbell six months after they were secretly married because he wanted her money.
Campbell, however, maintains she disappeared on a camping trip after leaving the tent to go to the toilet.
The paramedic and former policeman has now launched an appeal against the conviction and 24-year minimum sentence.
At the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal on Wednesday, Campbell's barrister April Francis said they were challenging the conviction on four grounds, including that the "prejudicial" evidence of retired physics professor Rod Cross should not have been allowed.
Associate Professor Cross was also a witness in Wood's 2008 murder conviction for spear-throwing his girlfriend Caroline Byrne off The Gap in Sydney in 1995.
In Wood's successful 2012 appeal, Assoc Prof Cross's crucial evidence that Ms Byrne was pushed from behind was labelled unsophisticated and lacking impartiality.
In Campbell's trial, Assoc Prof Cross also said it was likely Janet was pushed off the cliff from behind.
Ms Francis told the three-judge panel the witness did not have the "relevant expertise" and was acting as a "voicebox for the crown".
She said he'd framed his evidence around the case that Mrs Campbell was pushed without investigating the possibility she tripped and fell.
Ms Francis said had Wood's appeal already played out by the time of Campbell's trial, it was "inconceivable" that Justice Latham would have relied on Cross as a relevant expert.
But Justice Carolyn Simpson questioned this, saying, "Wood was a decision on its own circumstances".
Campbell's trial heard Campbell was a debt-riddled Casanova who, by the time his wealthy wife died, had gained $255,000 from the marriage and expected a further $127,000 to follow after her death.
He did not turn up to her funeral, and a week after becoming a widower took one of his three extra-marital lovers on holiday. He proposed two weeks later.
If the appeal is unsuccessful, Campbell's earliest release date is in May 2034.
The judges have reserved their decision.
Share
