Charles Christopher Warradoo was last year convicted of the murder of his girlfriend Angela Dean, 27, who was stabbed to death in Cape York in August 2012.

He was given life imprisonment with a 20-year non-parole period, but his legal team attempted to have the jury’s decision overturned.

Ms Dean had been living at her mother’s home with Warradoo in the Aboriginal community of Lockhart River.

Throughout the trial, the court heard evidence from Ms Dean’s mother and niece, who described turbulent and at times violent aspects of the couple’s relationship.

Ms Dean’s body was found with various injuries, including six stab wounds, and a knife in her hand after she had camped out with Warradoo on the way to a family ceremony.

The court heard the pair had been drinking, smoking cannabis and arguing the night before.

Warradoo’s legal team argued there was a miscarriage of justice due to the absence of a warning about the reliability of hearsay evidence.

In a written judgment handed down yesterday, Court of Appeal Judge Catherine Holmes said there was no specific warning sought during the trial, and it was an oversight from the defence team rather than a tactical decision.

‘‘Apart from a bland statement that hearsay evidence could be unreliable, it is difficult to see what the trial judge could have said; and it seems unlikely that a warning in such general terms would have been helpful,’’ Justice Holmes said.

Had the trial judge been asked to deliver a warning, he may have concluded there were good reasons for not doing so, she added.

The warning may have drawn the jury’s attention back to the evidence in question.

Justice Holmes found there had been no miscarriage of justice and dismissed the appeal.