A career criminal has lost an appeal against his conviction and sentence for the shooting murders of a couple in their Melbourne home 25 years ago.
The 66-year-old killer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is serving two life sentences for the murders of Ramon and Dorothy Abbey, aged 40 and 39, in July 1987, while their children were in their bedrooms nearby.
The children, aged five, nine and 10, found their mother on the lounge room couch with her throat cut and two gunshot wounds to the head.
Their father was found in a back shed near an empty safe, with three gunshot wounds to the head.
The killer, who has almost 60 convictions, is serving the two life sentences concurrently with a non-parole period of 32 years after being found guilty of the double murder by a Supreme Court jury.
He appealed his conviction on the basis that conversations covertly recorded in prison should have been excluded from the evidence.
He appealed his sentence on the basis that it was manifestly excessive.
In the Court of Appeal on Monday, Chief Justice Marilyn Warren and Justices Robert Redlich and Hartley Hansen dismissed the appeal.
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