An infertile killer claims she was framed over the brutal murder of an intellectually-impaired mother, whose children she wanted to call her own.
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Christine Lyons is serving a maximum 30-year jail term over the murder of 39-year-old Samantha Kelly in regional Victoria in 2016.
Lyons was found to be the key architect of the plot, also involving her then-partner Peter Arthur and former lover, Ronald Lyons.
Both Christine and Ronald Lyons, who are unrelated, want Victoria's Court of Appeal to overturn their convictions.
They say Arthur lied about their involvement in the murder to secure a lesser sentence for himself.
Christine Lyons was convicted off Arthur's evidence but he made "dramatic" changes to his story, the woman's barrister Christopher Carr told appeal judges on Tuesday.
Arthur blamed his shifting story on flashbacks and denied this was a bid to soften his own punishment, the barrister added.
(It was a) bare-faced lie designed by him to bolster his credibility," Mr Carr said.
Arthur pleaded guilty to murder. He was initially jailed for 16 years but this was later increased to 22 years on appeal.
Christine Lyons was jailed in 2018 for at least 23 years for attempted murder and murder.
Ronald Lyons was jailed for 12 years for attempted murder and assisting an offender, and ordered to serve nine years before being eligible for release on parole.
The trio had been living together at Bendigo, with Ms Kelly residing in a bungalow at the back of the property.
Christine Lyons desperately wanted children but had undergone a hysterectomy.
A Supreme Court jury found she sought to send Ms Kelly on a "permanent holiday" and take custody of her children, aged between 11 months and six years.
Christine and Ronald Lyons fed the woman a cocktail of sedatives, beta-blockers, anti-nausea tablets, analgesics and antihistamines.
Ms Kelly survived and Christine Lyons directed Arthur try a different method.
Arthur then bludgeoned Ms Kelly to death with a hammer and Ronald Lyons helped dispose of the body.
The trio told police Ms Kelly had left and no longer wanted to look after her children.
Prosecutors asked the court to uphold Christine and Ronald Lyons' convictions.
The Court of Appeal has reserved its decision.
Australian Associated Press
