An Australian Court of Appeal has said the rapist who killed Jill Meagher deserved the 'sternest' sentence possible.

The three-member panel of judges said the crimes of Adrian Ernest Bayley were "particularly callous" and "warranted condign punishment". Last month Bayley failed in an appeal to have his 35-year sentence reduced on the grounds that it was unduly harsh.

Lawyers for the 42-year-old argued the sentence was excessive and asked for it to be reduced by 7 years, but the judge refused his application and ruled that Bayley would serve his full life sentence.

The judges today released their reasons for upholding the sentence, saying the murder of Drogheda native Mrs. Meagher was "among the worst kinds conceivable".

"The applicant was a violent sexual predator who killed his victim" the judges said in their judgment.

Drogheda native Jill Meagher disappeared on her walk home back in September last year

"This was a case where the applicant was sentenced to one of the sternest sentences for this type of offending. At the time of the attack the applicant was on parole. He was also on bail having been convicted of an unprovoked assault on a male passer-by and subsequently having appealed to the County Court on the sentence imposed in the Magistrates' Court of three months' jail" they added.

Bayley pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 35 years without parole in June for the rape and murder of Meagher in a Melbourne suburb last September.

29-year-old Meagher was walking home from a pub in the town of Brunswick in the early hours of Saturday September 22nd 2012 when she disappeared on Sydney Road. Her body was discovered six days later buried in an area 50 kilometres from Brunswick.

Back in July, the husband of Jill Meagher went public with e-mails he sent to the Adult Parole Board in Victoria slamming them for negligence. In them Tom Meagher challenged the body to answer why his wife's killer remained free despite breaking his parole conditions.