NSW:Gordon Wood appeals cliff plunge conviction

AAP General News (Australia)
08-22-2011
NSW:Gordon Wood appeals cliff plunge conviction

By Margaret Scheikowski

SYDNEY, Aug 22 AAP - Gordon Wood's murder trial miscarried as scientific evidence about
his lover's cliff plunge was based on flawed assumptions and a wrongly dated photograph
of the scene, his appeal has been told.

His barrister Tim Game SC listed flawed, fixed assumptions put to the jury, noting
that a cliff scene photo said to have been taken in 1996 was in fact taken in 2003.

The crown's crucial witness, Associate Professor Rod Cross, had opined that Caroline
Byrne could not have landed where she did unless she was "spear thrown" by a strong male.

He argued against her having thrown herself off the cliff, saying she would only have
had a very short run-up of four metres, due to one metre of bushes.

Referring to the wrongly dated photo, Mr Game said it was highly probable that there
was not one metre of bushes in 1996 and that there was a run-up of at least five metres.

But Wendy Abraham, QC, for the crown, said even if there was an issue with the vegetation,
"it makes no iota of difference".

Wood was not present on Monday when his conviction challenge began in the NSW Court
of Criminal Appeal, but his relatives were, as was Ms Byrne's father.

In 2008, a jury found the then 46-year-old Wood guilty of murdering the 24-year-old
model at The Gap, a notorious Sydney suicide spot, late on the night of June 7, 1995.

He was jailed for at least 13 years, after the jury rejected a claim that Ms Byrne,
whose mother killed herself in 1991, had jumped off the cliff.

Wood's grounds of appeal include that the evidence and opinions of Prof Cross caused
the trial to miscarry.

The defence also say the trial judge made errors, including ruling that evidence showing
rocks at the base of The Gap being covered in water was irrelevant.

Mr Game said the crown proceeded on the basis that there was only a four metre run-up
and "not a centimetre more", but the photo's date "changes the parameters in a very significant
way".

"You have a completely different set of figures," he said, referring to Prof Cross's
calculations.

Other assumptions included that because a witness said Wood could bench press 100 kilos,
he had the capacity to spear throw his 57-kilo lover.

"It is just speculation he could do such a throw," Mr Game said.

He referred to experiments by Prof Cross in which he got "burly policeman to throw
co-operating subjects".

None of the subjects were struggling or limp, which led to a "quite fatal blow" to
the whole of the professor's evidence.

"The case has been put into an evidentiary straitjacket that just does not fit," Mr Game added.

The appeal will continue on Wednesday.

Outside court, Wood's sister Michelle said the family was hoping the appeal would lead
to justice being served.

"It has been long wait for a man who (is) innocent, who has been in jail for the last
three years," she said.

"He is extremely lifted by the amount of support that he receives - his family and
friends of course - and many hundreds of strangers that have written and provided support."

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