Qld torture terms 'manifestly inadequate'

Four men jailed over a sickening, seven-hour torture session on the Gold Coast that left their victim with a snapped tooth and cigarette burns were given manifestly inadequate sentences, a court has heard.

Dean Russell Knox, Zane Ian Potts, Jayden Tyrone Peters and Christopher Samuel Goulding all pleaded guilty and were sentenced to six years imprisonment for torturing a young man at a Southport house in February 2014.

But Michael Byrne QC, for the attorney-general, on Tuesday told Queensland's Court of Appeal these terms were manifestly inadequate and the judge had erred in deciding not to declare the men serious violent offenders.

It comes after Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath instructed the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to appeal against the four sentences handed down in the District Court at Southport last July.

In his submissions, Mr Byrne recounted how the victim was painted blue, made to drink urine and burnt with cigarettes for the "macabre amusement" of the group.

He also had engine jumper leads attached to his nipples, a plastic bag placed over his head and was repeatedly struck in the knees with a hammer, the court heard.

In footage played to the court, the young man can even be seen getting his tooth snapped with pliers as he lies bound in the sunlit backyard with his genitals tethered.

"Our submission is that if one word could be used to describe what has occurred ... (it would be) a truly apt description to use the word horrific," Mr Byrne said.

He suggested the sentencing judge had misapplied the principle of parity by setting the terms against those imposed on the least culpable offender.

The four men, whose parole eligibility dates range from this month to January next year, would have been required to serve at least 80 per cent of their jail terms if they'd been deemed serious violent offenders.

Their legal representatives objected to the appeal citing the sentencing judge's experience and prudent consideration of the circumstances and the absence of prior convictions.

Justices Robert Gotterson, Anthe Philippides and Philip McMurdo will deliver their judgment at a later date.