Death of Caroline Byrne
Caroline Byrne, an Australian model, was found at the bottom of a cliff at The Gap in Sydney in the early hours of 8 June 1995. Her then boyfriend Gordon Eric Wood, who at the time of her death was a chauffeur and personal assistant to businessman Rene Rivkin, was convicted of her murder on 21 November 2008 and spent three years in Goulburn Correctional Centre. He was acquitted of the conviction in February 2012.
Events of 7 June 1995
Born on 8 October 1970, Byrne had been in a relationship with Wood since 1992. She was a model but principally worked as a modelling instructor for Sydney deportment and etiquette educator June Dally-Watkins. On 7 June 1995, she failed to turn up for work and for an appointment with a psychiatrist. There were three claimed sightings of her near The Gap at Watsons Bay that afternoon and evening, in the company of two men, one of whom matched Wood's description. Two of the sightings, at 1:00p.m. and 3:00p.m., were by local cafe owners Craig Martin and Lance Melbourne. In 1998, John Doherty, an Irish artist who had been out of the country in the intervening years, came forward to say that around 8:30p.m. that evening he too had seen Byrne outside his studio window arguing with one man while another man stood nearby.Wood denied being present at Watsons Bay that afternoon. Evidence was sworn at both inquests by Wood's friends Brett Cochrane and Nic Samartis that they lunched with him briefly around 1:15p.m. in Potts Point before he was called away after a call from Rivkin. Wood claimed that he was asked by Rivkin to chauffeur prominent lobbyist and ex-federal minister Graham Richardson to an appointment and then spent the afternoon doing regular chores for Rivkin before going home around 7:00p.m. The Richardson alibi was compromised by Richardson when he was interviewed by police in 2001, when he advised that he had lunched that day with rugby league administrator Peter Moore.
Wood's movements in the afternoon have never been reported prior to the late evening, when Wood said he awoke on his couch having fallen asleep in front of the television and was immediately alarmed that Byrne was still not home. Wood has said he did not know Byrne's whereabouts but was led by what he termed "telepathic communication" to The Gap. He had first driven to the beachfront car-park at Bondi Beach where he and Byrne had spent much time and then to a favourite park at Camp Cove where they had often picnicked. Heading back from Camp Cove he spotted Byrne's white Suzuki Vitara parked in a lane at The Gap. It was when running about the cliff-top and shouting her name that Wood encountered two rock fishermen who verified his appearance around midnight.
Wood then rang Caroline's father, Tony Byrne, and brother Peter Byrne. He then drove back into Sydney and collected them and all three then went to the Gap and scoured the cliff-top. Peter Byrne later gave evidence that at about 1:00a.m. Wood claimed to have spotted her body at the base of the cliff using torchlight. Byrne himself said he could see nothing and nor could the police who arrived soon after with police torches. The night was dark and the cliff misty. Peter Byrne claimed it was difficult to see the rocks below the cliff, let alone a body. The contention whether Wood had claimed he could see something in the darkness figured in much media speculation over the years and formed a key part of Crown evidence in the 2008 trial. In 2011, the Appeal Court felt that the Crown had presented speculation in this area posing as evidence. This was one of the grounds resulting in Wood's 2011 appeal being upheld.
The identity of the second man supposedly sighted by Melbourne and Martin with Wood in Watsons Bay earlier in the day has remained unclear. With evidence contradicting the likelihood that the man was either of those whom the police considered in investigation the Crown chose to pose speculation without evidence on either during the trial and drew criticism from the trial judge and later the appellant judges.
Media interest
Byrne's death was accepted as a suicide by local Rose Bay Police and others. No photographs were taken of the location of her body's landing point.In 1996, Byrne's father began to agitate against the notion of suicide such that from 1997 onwards the case and circumstances of Byrne's death were regularly examined in Australia's national newspapers and reported as "one of Sydney's unsolved crimes". The death of a beautiful model at one of Sydney's notorious suicide spots, the connection to the flamboyant and newsworthy Rivkin, and a net of witnesses and commentators which included some prominent Sydney identities all added to the intrigue of the case.
Offset Alpine speculation
Attention was particularly heightened by the still unproven speculation of a connection with Rivkin's financial activities. The day before Byrne's death, Wood and Rivkin were interviewed by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission about the Offset Alpine fire of 1993 and the true ownership of share parcels traded in Offset Alpine owned by nominees related to Swiss bank accounts. Tony Byrne claimed that Wood had indicated to his daughter that the fire was a set-up for insurance purposes.Ultimately in 2001 Rivkin was charged with insider trading and his eventual conviction in 2003 had a devastating effect on his mental stability, culminating in his 2005 suicide. However the ASIC investigation into share trading in Offset Alpine and the true beneficiaries proved an epic that outlived Rivkin, commencing in 1995 and continuing from 2005 with a focus shifted to Graham Richardson and Trevor Kennedy until eventually closed without outcome by ASIC in 2010.
Peripheral celebrities
Adding to this intrigue was a list of celebrities with a peripheral involvement in the case. Byrne's medical doctor who had referred her to the psychiatric appointment she did not keep on 7 June was television celebrity physician, Dr Cindy Pan. Graham Richardson's diarised luncheon appointment that day was with rugby league identity Peter "Bullfrog" Moore at Sydney's Hilton Hotel and was set up to broker a peace deal in the Super League war which deeply divided Australian rugby league at that time. Wood always claimed that he had driven Moore from a noon meeting with Rivkin to what may well have been a lunch, though the press and the Crown ignored this possibility. Moore died in July 2000 a year prior to the Strikeforce Irondale interview with Richardson, thus preventing corroboration of the luncheon timings and Rivkin too was dead before the trial.Byrne's close friends included entertainer Tania Zaetta and actress Kylie Watson, a Home & Away cast member. It was the amateur sleuthing around Watsons Bay armed with photographs of Byrne in the weeks after her death which had Dally-Watkins and Watson uncover the Martin/Melbourne sighting lead. Other celebrity witnesses who figured in the case at some point included businessman John Singleton, journalist Paul Barry and paparazzo Jamie Fawcett.
Inquests, investigation and trials
Two inquests were held into Byrne's death by New South Wales State coroner John Abernethy, with Wood claiming it was suicide. The second inquest in 1998 delivered an open finding. That same year, Wood left Australia.Police investigations continued from 2000 onwards as "Strikeforce Irondale" with hundreds of witnesses interviewed and resulting in a brief of evidence running to more than 350 pages. Tony Byrne continued to press for action from the investigation eventually enrolling the assistance of New South Wales politician Fred Nile who raised questions about the investigation in State Parliament up till 2004.
In 2004, scientific reports relating to the physics of a body falling/jumping/being projected from the cliff produced by Professor Rod Cross were the principal elements of new evidence which encouraged the Crown to push for a trial of Gordon Wood. In March 2006, the New South Wales Director of Public Prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery QC agreed with police that there was enough evidence to charge Wood with Byrne's murder. Wood was detained in London in April 2006, extradited to Australia and released on bail by a Sydney court on 4 May. On 6 July 2007, Wood was committed to stand trial for the murder of Byrne.
The first trial started on 21 July 2008 with Mark Tedeschi QC appearing for the Crown and Winston Terracini QC defending Wood. On 6 August 2008, Justice Graham Barr declared a mistrial because of the alleged contact that a member of the jury had with 2GB radio host Jason Morrison. The juror, who remained anonymous, claimed that some of the jurors were planning a secret night visit to the crime scene being organised by a particular juror who was a "bully" and who had "already decided that Wood was guilty." Barr ruled "I had to discharge the jury... because some jurors disobeyed my instructions and misconducted themselves."
The second trial commenced on 25 August 2008 and for the first time in New South Wales court history a panel of 15 jurors was sworn in instead of the usual 12 to provide some contingency.
Trial evidence
Presentation of the Crown case
Following the aborted first trial, Tedeschi, as Crown Prosecutor, presented the Crown case over a nine-week period from 26 August until 24 October 2008. Over 70 witnesses were called and the jury heard hours of audio and video evidence including taped interviews with Rivkin and Wood.Witnesses called by the prosecution included Pan, Richardson, Watson, Zaetta, Singleton, Fawcett, Bob Hagan and sports journalist Phil Rothfield. Tony Byrne, Peter Byrne, Dally-Watkins and her daughter Carol Clifford appeared. Doherty and Cochrane gave evidence via video link up from overseas. Police witnesses included Tracey Smit and Paul Griffiths, Sgt Mark Powderly, Sgt Neville Greatorex, Snr Const Lisa Camwell and the first investigating officer of the case Sgt Craig Woods of Rose Bay who had first dismissed the death as suicide and who gave evidence that in the first weeks Tony Byrne too accepted the suicide verdict and was explicitly against the idea of an inquest. Another ex-policeman to appear was Byrne's former boyfriend Andrew Blanchette. At one stage Justice Barr counselled Blanchette that he ought to consider taking legal advice before answering a particular question. Sensationally on his second day in the witness box, Blanchette admitted that early that morning he had phoned another witness – Melinda Medich, his girlfriend and a minor at the time of Byrne's death – before she was due to give evidence later that day. Blanchette was reported to police by Medich who had not heard from him for a number of years. Blanchette denied that he had been attempting to influence her evidence.