Gerard Baden-Clay: court to hear appeal over conviction for murdering his wife
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Version 0 of 1. Former Brisbane real estate agent Gerard Baden-Clay is set to appeal against his conviction for murdering his wife Allison. Lawyers for the 44-year-old are due to take his case to the Queensland court of appeal on Friday. It’s been just over a year since the father of three was found guilty of killing his wife at their Brookfield home and dumping her body under a bridge. He is serving a life sentence without parole for at least 15 years. The defence team has outlined four grounds for appeal, including that the murder verdict was unreasonable and that there was a miscarriage of justice. At issue is how jurors were told to interpret key evidence, including cuts on Baden-Clay’s face the day Allison vanished and traces of her blood found in the family car. Baden-Clay’s lawyers say the judge’s instructions to the jury about the evidence contained errors. Allison was 43 when her husband reported her missing from the family home on 20 April 2012. Her body was found 10 days later on a creek bank in a nearby suburb. Gerard Baden-Clay fell under suspicion almost immediately but was not charged until June 2012. His multiple affairs and financial troubles and Allison’s battle with depression, were laid bare during last year’s trial. Then, Baden-Clay took to the witness box to proclaim his innocence. Yet the jury ultimately accepted the crown’s case that he killed his wife during a struggle and disposed of her body under cover of darkness. Now an inmate at Brisbane’s Wolston Correctional Centre, he is not expected to appear at Friday’s hearing. However it’s understood members of both his and Allison’s family intend to go. A decision from the three presiding Court of Appeal judges will likely be months away. |