Date set for Sydney mass murder appeal

Mass murderer Robert Xie will next year have an appeal heard against his conviction for bludgeoning five relatives to death in Sydney.

Xie on Thursday had his appeal hearing set down for June 22, 2020.

After four trials, a jury in 2017 found Xie guilty of murdering three adults and two children in the bedrooms of their Sydney home in the early hours of July 18, 2009 and he was given five life sentences.

Xie's newsagent brother-in-law Min Lin, 45, his wife Lily Lin, 43, the couple's sons Henry, 12, and nine-year-old Terry, and Lily's 39-year-old sister, Irene, suffered horrific head injuries when they were attacked with a hammer-like object attached to a rope.

Xie appeared via videolink from Lithgow Correctional Centre when his matter was heard briefly in the Criminal Court of Appeal on Thursday.