A Queensland man jailed for life in 2020 for raping and torturing a woman over 23 days claims he was not fully informed of charges to which he pleaded guilty.
Nicholas John Crilley appeared in Brisbane Court of Appeal via videolink on Thursday for a review of his application to overturn his conviction that resulted in a sentence of seven concurrent life terms.
Crilley previously pleaded guilty to 62 offences including grievous bodily harm, deprivation of liberty, torture and 18 counts of rape.
The sentencing judge said Crilley's "callous and cruel" treatment of the woman, who was aged 22 at the time, in Brisbane in June 2017 left her permanently disfigured.
Court of Appeal President Debra Mullins on Thursday told Crilley he would need to apply to withdraw his guilty pleas and provide an explanation as to why the court should allow it.
Crilley, who is representing himself in the appeal, said he twice attempted to stop his sentencing after realising he was pleading guilty to some offences to which he had not intended.
"Because I was sentenced via videolink, it was only roughly a third of the way through the sentencing that I realised key amendments had not been made to the statement of facts and the charge list," Crilley said.
Justice Mullins told Crilley in order to use those grounds to withdraw his plea, he would have to give up his legal professional privilege with the solicitor and barrister who represented him at the sentencing.
"If you are going to argue you were misled, you have got to allow those lawyers to put in an affidavit saying what happened from their point of view, do you understand that?" Justice Mullins asked Crilley.
"I think so," Crilley replied.
Justice Mullins said it was her preference to send the matter back to the original sentencing judge and if they refused to allow Crilley to withdraw his guilty pleas he would have the option to appeal that decision.
Crilley said he agreed with that option as it would give him two chances to state his case.
Justice Mullins placed the matter on hold until Legal Aid could hold a review on August 23 into its prior refusal to fund lawyers to work on Crilley's appeal.
