Adrian Bayley wins right to fight for taxpayer-funded appeal

Notorious rapist and murderer Adrian Bayley has won the right to again apply for taxpayer-funded lawyers to fight two convictions.

The Supreme Court has ruled Adrian Bayley can re-apply for Legal Aid funding, after it was initially denied. 

The 44-year-old is serving a life sentence with a 35-year minimum for the 2012 rape and murder of Jill Meagher.

But that non-parole period was extended to beyond his life expectancy after he was sentenced on three other rapes. 

Victorian Legal Aid denied him funding to appeal two of those convictions, but today he won the right to re-apply for taxpayer-funded lawyers. 

Justice Kevin Bell found that the refusal was legally unreasonable and therefore invalid.

He noted that all people are equal before the law, and it would be unlawful to reject an application because the applicant is a notorious and unpopular individual who had already been convicted for heinous crimes.