Man 'threw girlfriend like a spear'

Robert Wainwright
June 12, 2007 - 3:00PM
Caroline Byrne.

Caroline Byrne.

Gordon Wood hurled his model girlfriend off The Gap in Sydney in a spear throw that lobbed her so severely into a crevice, a rescue team had to use force to free her body from the base of the cliff, a court heard today.

Wood is charged with the 1995 murder of Caroline Byrne.

In his opening address at a committal hearing at the Burwood Local Court, Crown Prosecutor Mark Tedeschi, QC, said scientific evidence from University of Sydney physics professor Rodney Cross would show that Ms Byrne could only have landed next a rock called the Pyramid if thrown by one man.

Extensive tests concluded that she could not have jumped, fallen, been pushed or been thrown by two men for her to end up 11.8 metres out from the edge of the cliff.

"Gordon Wood possessed the strength to spear throw Caroline Byrne to the place where her body was found," the prosecutor said.

Today's hearing follows three investigations into her death in the early hours of June 8, 1995.

Mr Tedeschi said there was evidence that Wood had lied about his whereabouts on the day before the death.

He said the prosecution would show there was evidence that Wood had been at Watsons Bay, not far from The Gap, that afternoon and evening.

Professor Cross told the court he had conducted six reports into the case over two years.

These involved two landing spots at the base of The Gap, one of which was later found to be wrong.

Even so, in neither case did he find that Ms Bryne could have reached them by throwing herself off.

Mr Tedeschi asked Professor Cross whether, after all his tests, there was a possibility that that she could have killed herself or fallen off.

"No. It is not possible," the professor replied.

To hit the spot where she landed, he had calculated that she would have had to be moving at a speed of 4.5 metres per second as she left the cliff top.

He conducted tests involving 11 female police cadets, including some who were good athletes, and found that none could get make that speed. The average was only 3.5 metres per second.

In contrast, the professor conducted tests to see if the required speed could be reached if a woman was spearthrown by a man.

He found that two of the men he had tested could throw a mannequin weighing 61 kilograms - which was four kilograms heavier than Ms Bryne - at the required speed.

One of those men could bench-press 95 kilograms and the other 120 kilograms.

Mr Tedeschi told the court there was evidence that Wood could bench-press 100 kilograms.

AAP reports: Wood may have murdered Ms Byrne to prevent her from exposing lies he allegedly told at an inquiry into the printing company Offset Alpine, Mr Tedeschi said today.

It was the prosecution's case that at the time of her death, Ms Byrne wanted to end her relationship with Wood but Wood was possessive and did not want her to leave, he said.

Mr Tedeschi also said Wood had bought shares in Offset Alpine Printing, a company associated with stockbroker Rene Rivkin, who employed him as a driver.

The corporate watchdog, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), had launched an inquiry after a fire destroyed Offset Alpine's premises, resulting in a huge insurance payout.

Mr Tedeschi said the inquiry had been "a source of great stress and anxiety" to Wood and on June 6, 1995 he had been called to give evidence to the commission.

Wood had allegedly lied to ASIC, telling them he had no knowledge of his boss's business affairs and was "just a bag carrier".

"Caroline had information about the defendant's shareholding in that company and that the fire had been a set-up," Mr Tedeschi said.

"This information was potentially embarrassing to Gordon Wood because [he] feared that the break-up of their relationship would leave him exposed to the disclosure by her of his shareholding in the printing company and hence the fact that he had told lies to the ASIC inquiry."

The disclosure also could have had serious repercussions on Wood's relationship with Rivkin, which he valued greatly, Mr Tedeschi said.
"The person who threw Caroline Byrne over The Gap was the defendant, Gordon Wood," he alleged.

Mr Tedeschi told the hearing earlier that, in February or March 1995, Ms Byrne had spoken about her relationship to the owner of the gym where she and Wood - who worked as a chauffeur for stockbroker Rene Rivkin - worked out.

"He's very possessive and loses his temper and snaps," Ms Byrne allegedly told the man.

"Sometimes he gets so angry it's like he wants to kill me."
Mr Tedeschi said Ms Byrne had another conversation with the gym owner in late April or early May that year, saying "sometimes I fear for my life with Gordon. I have to break this off and leave him".

Magistrate Jane Mottley heard that Ms Byrne's body was found wedged head-first between rocks at the bottom of the 29-metre high cliff, 11.8 metres away from the cliff face.

The hearing continues.

