Caroline Byrne case

The Caroline Byrne case concerns the cause of death of Australian model Caroline Byrne, who was found at the bottom of a cliff at The Gap in Sydney in the early hours of June 8, 1995. Her then boyfriend Gordon Wood, who at the time of her death was chauffeur and personal assistant to disgraced businessman Rene Rivkin, was arrested for her murder in London on April 3, 2006. Wood's trial commenced in Sydney in July 2008.

Events of June 7, 1995

When she died, Byrne was 24 and 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 June 7, 1995 she failed to turn up for work and for an appointment with a psychiatrist. That afternoon and evening there were three reported sightings of her near The Gap at Watsons Bay, in the company of two men, one of whom matched Wood's description. Two of the sightings (at 1 pm and 3 pm) were by the owners of the Bad Dog Cafe, Craig Martin and Lance Melbourne. In 1998 an Irish artist named John Doherty came forward to say that later that evening (8:30 pm) he too had sighted Byrne outside his studio window arguing with one man while another man stood nearby. [http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/mystery-born-in-womans-final-scream/2006/04/04/1143916528022.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1| A mystery born in a woman's dying cry]

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 1:15 pm in Potts Point before he was called away after a call from Rivkin. [Chenoweth Packer's Lunch page 206] 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 pm. The Richardson alibi was denied by Richardson when he was interviewed by police in 2001. [http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/mystery-born-in-womans-final-scream/2006/04/04/1143916528022.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1| A mystery born in a woman's dying cry]

Wood's movements in the afternoon have not been reported prior to the late evening when he awoke on his couch having fallen asleep in front of the television. He 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, where he claimed to have spotted her body at the base of the cliff.

The identity of the second man sighted with Wood in Watsons Bay earlier in the day remains unclear. At various times the press have postulated that it may have been Caroline's booking agent Adam Leigh [Chenoweth Packer's Lunch page 207] or Rivkin associate Gary Redding.

Media interest

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 and photogenic 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. Tantalising headshots and modelling bodyshots of Caroline were available in apparent abundant supply to accompany any newspaper articles.

Offset Alpine speculation

Attention was particularly heightened by the continuing (though unproven) speculation of a connection with Rene Rivkin's financial activities. The day before Byrne's death, Wood and Rivkin were interviewed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission about the accidental Offset Alpine fire of 1993 and the true ownership of share parcels traded in Offset Alpine owned by nominees related to Swiss bank accounts. [Chenoweth Packer's Lunch page 203] Wood had reportedly indicated to Byrne that the fire was a "set-up" for insurance purposes. It has been reported in the "Sydney Morning Herald" (see ref Wainwight et al) that Wood's mother made a profit of A$10,000 trading in Offset Alpine shares bought in February 2004 at $1.30. However, in his 2006 book "Packer's Lunch", Neil Chenoweth records that the company's shares were trading above $1.50 from January 2004, casting doubt on this account.

Ultimately in 2001 Rivkin was charged with insider trading (of Qantas shares) and his eventual conviction in 2003 would have a devastating affect on his mental stability, resulting in his 2004 suicide. [http://www.smh.com.au/news/Business/Pity-the-poor-man/2005/05/02/1114886315349.html Rivkin "Pity the poor man" Author Ian Verrender SMH May 2005] However the ASIC investigation into share trading in Offset Alpine and the true beneficiaries would prove an epic that outlived Rivkin, commencing in 1995 and still running as of 2008 with its focus shifted to Graham Richardson and Trevor Kennedy. All of this background provided a framework for regular media analysis over the ten-year period 1997 to 2007 of the circumstances of the death of Caroline Byrne and its circumstantial links to the lifestyles of Sydney's rich and famous.

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 June 7 was no ordinary GP but Dr Cindy Pan, a television celebrity physician. [Chenoweth Packer's Lunch page 205] Graham Richardson's diarised luncheon appointment that day (which caused him to question whether he may have been chauffered anywhere by Wood) was with rugby league identity Peter Bullfrog Moore at Sydney's Hilton Hotel - Moore died in July 2000 a year prior to Strikeforce Irondale detectives interview with Richardson, thus preventing corroboration of the luncheon timings. [http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/let-me-see-her-breasts-asked-wood/2007/06/26/1182623909282.html] Caroline's best friend was actress Kylie Watson, a "Home and Away" soapie star and her boss the modelling doyenne Ms Dally-Watkins, widely known in Sydney society since the 1950s. Armed with photographs of Caroline it was Dally-Watkins' and Watson's amateur sleuthing around Watsons Bay in the months after her death that uncovered the Martin/Melbourne sighting lead. [Chenoweth Packer's Lunch page 206]

Possible prosecution witnesses named by Justic Barr when empanelling the second trial jury in August 2008 included entertainer Tania Zaetta, 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. Caroline's father 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. [http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/Prod/Parlment/Hansart.nsf/V3Key/LC20040318037 Hansard, Fred Nile re Caroline Byrne Investigation 18March 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. [ [http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/man-threw-girlfriend-like-a-spear/2007/06/12/1181414266163.html Man 'threw girlfriend like a spear' - National - smh.com.au] ] . (See Location of the body). 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. [http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2006/s1608237.htm Asst. Commissioner Graeme Morgan re Wood extradition ] Wood was detained in London in April 2006, extradited to Australia and released on bail by a Sydney court on May 4. On July 6, 2007, Wood was committed to stand trial for the murder of Byrne.

The first trial started on July 21, 2008 with Mark Tedeschi QC appearing for the Crown and Winston Terracini QC defending Wood. On August 6, 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 (the Gap) being organised by a particular juror who was a "bully" and who had "already decided that Wood was guilty." Justice Barr ruled "I had to discharge the jury ... because some jurors disobeyed my instructions and misconducted themselves." [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24238802-12377,00.html Fresh jury sworn in for Wood trial]

The second trial commenced on August 25, 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. [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24238802-12377,00.html Fresh jury sworn in for Wood trial]

Evidence

Location of the body

Retired University of Sydney physicist Rod Cross conducted six reports into the case over two years. [ [http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/man-threw-girlfriend-like-a-spear/2007/06/12/1181414266163.html Man 'threw girlfriend like a spear' - National - smh.com.au] ] . Actually an expert on Alfven waves in the field of Plasma Physics, Cross also has sufficient interest in Sports Mechanics to be proposed by police investigators as a forensic science expert in fall dynamics. In 2005 he conducted experiments which informed his speculation that Byrne could not have jumped to the spot where her body was found (11.8 metres from the cliff) and must have been thrown, probably by two men. [Chenoweth Packer's Lunch page 210]

During the second trial in 2008 the Court was told of some uncertainty regarding the actual location where the body was found. Senior Constable Lisa Camwell, one of the officers who retrieved Byrne's body in 1995 gave evidence that she had in 1996 participated in a video re-enactment in which she indicated the body's location. She gave evidence that in 2004 she was contacted by an officer in charge of the murder investigation and told that the position of Ms Byrne's body had become a significant issue. She was told that the body position she had indicated on the video now appeared to be incorrect. Media reports during the second trial suggest the location of the body is essential to the Crown case that Ms Byrne was not pushed nor jumped, but was forcefully thrown to her death [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24318148-2702,00.html]

uicide history

During the second trial the court heard that Caroline's mother Andrea Byrne had committed suicide in March 1991 after she became depressed following a breast enlargement operation that went wrong. [http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/08/29/2349986.htm] Mr Terracini also read to the court a letter Tony Byrne had previously provided to police in which he claimed that Caroline had made an attempt on her own life via overdose in 1992. In court Mr Byrne denied that Caroline had on that occasion intended to kill herself and instead was making "a cry for help". At another stage of the cross examination, he claimed to suppose that had Caroline wanted to kill herself she would have copied her mother's method rather than jumping from a cliff. [http://www.theage.com.au/national/trial-told-rivkin-lavished-toy-boy-20080829-45rd.html]

Byrne's GP, author and television personality Cindy Pan, gave evidence that she had seen Byrne for two years before her death and had specifically discussed Byrne's depression with her in the weeks leading up to her death. Dr Pan told the court Byrne said she had felt depressed for about a month and the condition had worsened in the week leading up to their appointment on June 5, 1995. Pan said the model told her she could not put a finger on what she was unhappy about.

"I was trying to explore with her what she might be depressed about, but she was not really able to identify any one specific thing," Dr Pan told the court. She said Ms Byrne told her she "had the same thing three years ago" and had been put on medication, which had helped. Dr Pan said Ms Byrne denied having thoughts of self-harm and she referred her to a psychiatrist, obtaining an appointment for 4 pm on Wednesday, June 7. [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24364986-5006784,00.html "The Australian" Cindy Pan evidence]

References

ources

* Robert Wainwright, James Button, and Philip Cornford,"The Caroline Byrne Case: A Herald Investigation", "Sydney Morning Herald", April 5 2006, pp. 1, 6, 7:
** [http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/mystery-born-in-womans-final-scream/2006/04/04/1143916528022.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1| A mystery born in a woman's dying cry] [http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/the-high-life-of-a-murder-suspect/2006/04/04/1143916530334.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2| The high life of a murder suspect]
*Robert Wainwright, [http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/man-threw-girlfriend-like-a-spear/2007/06/12/1181414266163.html%7C Man 'threw girlfriend like a spear'] , The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 June 2007
*Jennifer Cooke, [http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/wood-to-face-murder-trial-over-girlfriends-death/2007/07/06/1183351454046.html Twelve years on, Wood to face murder trial over girlfriend's death] , The Sydney Morning Herald, 7 July 2007
*Neil Chenoweth, Packer's Lunch, Allen and Unwin, 2007, ISBN 9781741753233

Footnotes