A man jailed for the murder of a Melbourne sex worker is appealing his conviction over phone call recordings he says should have been considered at trial.
Steve Constantinou, 50, has been sentenced to at least 20 years in prison for murdering Johanna 'Jazzy O' Martin in 2011, robbing her of her jewellery and dumping her body in bushes.
He claimed during a Supreme Court trial that Ms Martin, 65, died during an erotic asphyxiation fantasy, wearing a dog collar and reins.
Barrister Dermot Dann on Thursday said the trial prosecutor wrongly accused Constantinou of quickly concocting the dog collar story before taking the stand.
He said recorded prison phone calls between Constantinou and his daughter, at the end of 2011 and in early 2012, showed he had discussed the fatal sex accident before the trial and the audio should have been canvassed with the jury.
"These calls are littered with references to this being a sex act gone wrong," Mr Dann told the Victorian Court of Appeal.
He admitted none of the phone calls referenced Ms Martin dying from a collar around her neck, but said that was because Constantinou was too embarrassed to discuss specifics with his daughter.
Mr Dann called the trial "ultimately unfair" and said a substantial miscarriage of justice had occurred.
But senior Crown prosecutor Brendan Kissane QC denied that was the case, and said Constantinou's credibility was always going to be an issue.
"This was a case where the accused had, by the end of the trial, given three distinct versions as to what had occurred, " Mr Kissane said.
He said the jury would have convicted Constantinou, regardless of whether the phone calls were included at trial or not.
The court will consider the appeal and return a ruling at a later date.
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