Photo: CTV

A lawyer for a British Columbia man convicted of killing three women and a teenage girl says his client deserves a new trial because the judge made disparaging comments about the defence counsel that were only made public after a sentence was imposed.

Cody Legebokoff was given life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years by a Prince George, B.C., judge for the first-degree murders of 15-year-old Loren Leslie, 23-year-old Natasha Montgomery and Jill Stuchenko and Cynthia Maas, who were both 35.

His lawyer Eric Gottardi told the B.C. Court of Appeal that despite the "overwhelming" evidence against Legebokoff, the appearance of unfairness at the trial means the case must be heard again.

His argument focused on the fact that the judge ruled against a defence application in 2012 to have the trial moved to Vancouver, but the written reasons were only released after Legebokoff was convicted and sentenced in 2014.

The judge said in those reasons that Legebokoff's counsel had exaggerated and distorted evidence in the application to have the trial moved, and Gottardi told the appeal court that the judge's comments imply that counsel behaved unethically.

Gottardi said his client should have been made aware before the trial that the judge thought his lawyer's behaviour was unethical, and the appearance of unfairness amounts to a miscarriage of justice.