David Harold Eastman has dismissed his legal team and demanded the judge handling the inquiry into his murder conviction remove himself from the proceedings.
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The move from Eastman, serving a life sentence for the 1989 murder of Australian Federal Police assistant commissioner Colin Winchester, threatens to further delay the much-anticipated inquiry.
Eastman has a history of abruptly sacking lawyers in previous court appearances, including during his trial.
He appeared via video link from Canberra's jail on Monday morning, informing the court that he would be representing himself, and describing John Harris, SC, as his ''former lawyer''. Squabbling over Eastman's legal representation had already caused months of delay to the inquiry, and Mr Harris was only cleared to represent the convicted murderer two weeks ago.
Eastman also formally asked that Justice Kevin Duggan remove himself from the inquiry over concerns of a perceived apprehension of bias, sparked by the history of one of three lawyers acting as junior counsel assisting in the inquiry.
That lawyer, Joe Kellaway, worked as a research assistant to Acting Justice Jeffrey Miles on a 2005 inquiry into Eastman's fitness to plead.
Justice Duggan told the court on Monday there was nothing to suggest Mr Kellaway's involvement would create perceived bias, and ruled that he would not remove himself from the Eastman inquiry. The court heard Mr Kellaway only had a ''very limited role'' in the 2005 inquiry, and was not made aware of any details of Eastman's case that are not now on the public record.
But Eastman, who was repeatedly warned not to interrupt during Monday's hearing, has already foreshadowed he will continue to fight the judge's involvement in the ACT Supreme Court. At one point, Eastman spoke over the top of Justice Duggan, demanding the court stop discussing the fresh problems with his legal representation because it breached matters of privilege.
The reasons for the sacking are not clear, but Mr Harris told the court he and Legal Aid stood ready to assist the inquiry if Eastman wished to re-engage their services at a later stage.
Eastman criticised Justice Duggan for not considering the perceived bias when it was ''clearly raised'' in proceedings earlier this year.
The judge responded that no formal application was ever made for him to remove himself from the inquiry.
But Eastman said that was "immaterial", and that the earlier discussions about Mr Kellaway should have made the issue of apprehended bias clear to ''an experienced judge such as yourself''.
He said he will take the matter to the ACT Supreme Court to obtain a writ of prohibition to stop the proceedings and deal with the issue.
The latest developments in the case threaten to further stall the inquiry, which is looking at various aspects of Eastman's conviction, including his fitness to plead, forensic evidence and the conduct of the prosecution and investigating police.
The inquiry cannot proceed until Eastman's concerns have been dealt with in the ACT Supreme Court.
But lawyers have already made significant advances in collecting the wealth of material and evidence relating to each of the 19 terms of reference, despite the delays.
That included the ''difficult'' task of finding a set of forensic guidelines, issued by a now defunct British forensic service, buried in British archives.
Surveillance tapes are also being enhanced using modern technology.
Justice Duggan is working his way through 7000 pages of material, and those involved in the inquiry are looking at 300 historical suppression orders, made by different courts, to see which are still current.
