The Crown v Gerard Baden-Clay, 7th July - Trial Day 15

[Amee]

Mr Byrne turned his attention to the evidence of Sen-Constable Cameron Simmons.

He said a crime scene warrant was executed over the Baden-Clay home on April 20, 2012 and remained in force for seven days.

“They thoroughly examined and searched that property for seven days… they had the State Emergency Service conducting a shoulder to shoulder search in the property and the only thing of interest found was a black NAB pen,” he said.

Mr Byrne said he was asking the jury to consider all of the evidence.

“The evidence here is the police did their job, they did it thoroughly looking for blood, for a crime scene, looking for damage. They found none,” he said.

Mr Byrne turned to the evidence of forensic co-ordinator Sen-Sgt Ewen Taylor.

He said Sen-Sgt Taylor told the jury he was very experienced at forensic searching and there was “no obvious indication of a clean-up” inside the house.

He said police went over the house with a “fine-toothed comb”.

Mr Byrne said Baden-Clay was a real estate agent and accountant, not a forensic expert.

“They looked and again, nothing there,” he said.

Mr Byrne said Baden-Clay and his wife were not alone in the house on April 19, 2012.

He said their three young children were also home, asleep.

Mr Byrne recalled the evidence of the accused, who told the jury last week if any of his daughters called out in the house it could be easily heard from another room.

He said the three girls were interviewed by police on April 20, 2012.

Mr Byrne said the eldest child, aged 10, told police she last saw her mum the night before, “on the couch, watching television”.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...-allison-in-2012/story-fnihsrf2-1226979525605

 

[Freya1977]

Sarah Elks ‏@sarahelks 47s
Defence: prosecution says #badenclay killed his wife to be with Toni McHugh. Even McHugh knew he wasn't going to leave his wife.


David Murray ‏@TheMurrayD 56s
Toni said relationship was up and down year after year - defence #badenclay
Don't use morals to convict him - defence #badenclay

 

[samanthaj]

12:20pm: Mr Byrne has displayed another PowerPoint slide to the court which it titled: "Why would Gerard Baden-Clay kill his wife?"

The slide includes two key questions:

* To be with Toni McHugh?

* Because of financial pressure?

The prosecution has alleged Mr Baden-Clay was embroiled in an illicit affair with his former employee Toni McHugh and was under significant financial stress at the time of his wife's disappearance.


Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/que...y-15-week-5-20140707-3bhb6.html#ixzz36kHzWj9Z

 

[Amee]

He said the girl told police her father told her to “be nice to mum, because she’s sick”.

Mr Byrne said the girl told police her mum was wearing a sloppy jacket and pyjama pants.

“The girls are innocents who have been in the house when these events are said to have occurred,” he said.

He said the eldest girl told police the family had been happy.

Mr Byrne said the girl told police she heard no noises, including the sound of a car starting, even though her bedroom was situated directly above the car port.

“If you listen carefully to this young girl who is missing mum, who is relating to the police as best she can, what she saw and heard, there’s none of that… Was there an argument? No there wasn’t. It was just a night, like any other night,” he said.

Mr Byrne turned to the evidence of the Baden-Clay’s middle daughter, then aged six.

He said she told the police in an interview played back to the jury that her parents never fought.

Mr Byrne said the girl shook her head in response to a question from police asking if her parents fought the night before.

“From the mouths of babes,” he said.

He said the youngest girl told police she never heard her parents talk loudly to each other, either.

“Three children, three unanimous, unprompted, unscripted, raw accounts of what did not happen the night before in the house of Brookfield Road,” he said.

Mr Byrne reiterated it was important the jury not take grabs from headlines and assess the evidence of the girls.

He said none of the children heard the car start up that night, a central tenet to the Crown’s case.

Mr Byrne said the jury heard evidence of screams in the night but a witness who lived near to the Baden-Clay home had since claimed her daughter ran into a spider’s web and screamed that night.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...-allison-in-2012/story-fnihsrf2-1226979525605

 

[Freya1977]

Katrina Blowers ‏@katrinablowers 37s
Defence: "Whatever you may think of Gerard’s morals.. you don’t use those morals to convict him of this crime." @7NewsBrisbane #badenclay


Leonie Mellor ‏@leoniemellor 43s
Byrne: "Whatever you may think of Gerard's morals you don't use those morals to convict him of this crime." @abcnews #badenclay

 

[JK673]

Kate Kyriacou @KateKyriacou · 54s
Byrne says Toni agreed her relationship with Gerard was up and down all the time year after year. #badenclay

Kate Kyriacou @KateKyriacou · 56s
Byrne says Toni was convinced their relationship was over after Allison found out. #badenclay

Kate Kyriacou @KateKyriacou · 41s
Byrne says Gerard contacted Toni again after three months. #badenclay

Kate Kyriacou @KateKyriacou · 36s
Byrne says whatever the jury thinks of Gerard's morals, they can't convict him on his morals. #badenclay

Kate Kyriacou @KateKyriacou · 11s
Byrne says Gerard made more promises to Toni, but in Toni's words "again nothing happened". #badenclay

How does Kate type so fast????

 

[Amee]

That puts a sword through any theory about screams or bumps in the night,” he said.

He said the prosecution case was that Baden-Clay somehow caused his wife’s death without leaving a crime scene with blood, then loaded the body into the Holden Captiva and take it to Kholo Creek where it was “unceremoniously dumped”.

“Is that what the evidence on examination shows? Or does it paint something quite different to that?,” he asked.

Mr Byrne said Ms Baden-Clay was wearing pyjamas on April 19, 2012 but when her body was found, it was fully dressed in walking gear.

“How does that come about? Is the Crown theory that after he has violently murdered his wife, he somehow dresses the body – that is, a dead, inert body - … Is the Crown theory that he has undressed her and dressed her, meticulously, even to the extent of putting a jumper on the dead body because we’ve heard from the witnesses it was cold in April?,” he asked.

He asked the jury whether it might also be feasible for Ms Baden-Clay to have worn her running gear to bed or whether the “violent killing” took place early in the morning of April 20, 2012, after she was dressed in her walking clothes.

Mr Byrne asked why there was no blood if the accused dragged his wife’s body through the house and down to the car port.

He told the jury to be certain the blood in the car was from Ms Baden-Clay.

He said the body was moved through foliage in such a manner that leaves had attached to it and that 10 days later, remained on or near the body, but were not found in the car.

Mr Byrne asked how the moving of the body and the car pulling out of the driveway was not heard by the three girls.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...-allison-in-2012/story-fnihsrf2-1226979525605

 

[Freya1977]

Sarah Elks ‏@sarahelks 49s
Barrister Byrne for Gerard #badenclay - "Whatever you may think of Gerard's morals, you don't use those morals to convict him of this crime"

 

[Amee]

The prosecution case is that Gerad Baden-Clay after violently killing his wife, leaves his young children alone, while he drives his wife’s deceased and freshly dressed body the distance it has to go to Kholo Creek,” he said.

Mr Byrne said the accused must have stopped his car on the road and, “in the middle of the night” he manages to get the body out of the car and carry it, or drag it, down through the grass, mud to the creek.

“He then climbs back up that bank, walks through the mud, walks through the grass and drives the car home and parks it in the car port,” he said.

“Ask yourselves the critical question. Do you, as reasonable members of the community and persons with common sense and experience, do you think such a scenario is even possible?”

He showed the jury a photograph of the Kholo Creek Bridge on Mt Crosby Rd at Anstead.

Mr Byrne read from the evidence of Sen-Constable Ashley Huth, who was rappelled down from the road to the bank where the body was found on April 30, 2012.

He said the mud of the bank of Kholo Creek was so thick it reached his mid-lower leg.

The court will resume at 12.05pm.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...-allison-in-2012/story-fnihsrf2-1226979525605

 

[Freya1977]

David Murray ‏@TheMurrayD 31s
Gerard was meeting Toni weekdays, not on weekends - defence #badenclay

Oh well then, that's a completely different story!

 

[JK673]

Kate Kyriacou @KateKyriacou · 12s
Byrne says Gerard's affair didn't occur on the weekends. He's married. He was with his family. #badenclay

Kate Kyriacou @KateKyriacou · 11s
Byrne says it was a pattern of promises, no action. It had been going on for years. He says Toni agreed with that. #badenclay

 

[they'll get you]

I chucked my bras out in the 70's.

:floorlaugh:

 

[Tishy]

David Murray ‏@TheMurrayD 31s
Gerard was meeting Toni weekdays, not on weekends - defence #badenclay

Oh well then, that's a completely different story!

Yep. Morals don't apply on weekdays @@

 

[KrystalKlear]

Kate Kyriacou @KateKyriacou · 13s

Byrne reminds jury that Gerard is an accountant working as a real estate agent. He doesn't known how to clean up a murder scene. #badenclay

Hmm, he wasn't a stand out at Accountancy, & he managed to drive his Real Estate Agency into a huge debt ridden hole - perhaps on the 3rd score - he finally succeeded!

 

[Her Honour]

David Murray ‏@TheMurrayD 2m
It's about the evidence, not the media - #badenclay
Crown says he's somehow murdered his wife - defence #badenclay
One of the first witnesses, a police officer, told you he's one of the nicest guys he's met - defence #badenclay
You've heard what this man has done in the community #badenclay
This man has never displayed violence, never been seen to be violent or indeed argue with his wife - defence #badenclay

Unfortunately for him, yes we have :notgood::trainwreck:

 

[Freya1977]

David Murray ‏@TheMurrayD 28s
Crown will harangue you and say this is different - defence #badenclay

 

[JK673]

Kate Kyriacou @KateKyriacou · 3s
Byrne says Toni said Gerard was good at making promises. Nothing ever came of them. #badenclay

 

[MRSA]

Our neighbour's car was stolen at 3am. They entered the house with the husband asleep on the fold out sofa where he had been watching videos, they watched some of it AND rewound it and took the keys to the brand new Audi

See, there is honour among thieves. Well courtesy, anyway.

I know how they could afford the Audi, they're still watching movies on VHS.

 

[Freya1977]

David Murray ‏@TheMurrayD 23s
Gerard Baden-Clay was not sexually faithful full stop - defence #badenclay

 

[JK673]

Kate Kyriacou @KateKyriacou · 38s
Byrne tells jury Gerard wasn't even faithful to Toni McHugh. #badenclay

Kate Kyriacou @KateKyriacou · 33s
Byrne: To be brutal ... Gerard Baden-Clay was not sexually faithful.

Kate Kyriacou @KateKyriacou · 9s
Byrne says Toni was not the woman Gerard was going to leave his wife and children for. #badenclay