A man who set fire to his luxury Melbourne apartment with the body of his murdered lover inside should have his jail sentence increased, a court has heard.
Victorian crown prosecutors are appealing against Michael Anthony O'Neill's 18-year sentence for bludgeoning then strangling his interior designer partner, Stuart Rattle.
They say the fact he set fire to their South Yarra home five days later is an aggravating feature, but defence lawyers say O'Neill did it to give "dignity" to his victim's grisly death.
Chief Crown Prosecutor Gavin Silbert told the Court of Appeal the sentence, with a non-parole period of 13 years, was manifestly inadequate.
"The clear reason for the lighting of the fire was to obscure the fact a murder had been committed at the premises," Mr Silbert said.
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"There was a conscious decision to commit arson with a view to incinerating the body."
Defence barrister Paul Holdenson said Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth had accepted O'Neill's account to police that he didn't want Mr Rattle to be remembered by the details of his death.
"I thought it would give him some dignity to do it," O'Neill told police, after he killed his partner of 16 years in December 2013.
Mr Silbert said this was unlikely.
However, Justice Robert Redlich said prosecutors did not attempt to demonstrate that arson was a significant aggravating feature during the plea hearing.
Mr Holdenson said prosecutors were "making a new case" on appeal.
He said the sentence fit into the range for comparable cases - which, he said, the crown submitted was "mid-range" - and if the Court of Appeal did re-sentence there would "only be a tinker".
"Manifest inadequacy has not been made out," Mr Holdenson said.
The Court of Appeal reserved its judgment.
