Former boyfriend convicted of murder
The boyfriend of a model who was found wedged in the rocks below a Sydney cliff notorious for suicides was convicted Friday of murdering her 13 years ago.
Gordon Wood, 45, had pleaded not guilty in the death of his girlfriend, Caroline Byrne, maintaining that she had been depressed and killed herself. His lawyer said he would appeal the conviction. Byrne was 24 years old when she died.
"He is maintaining his innocence. We will appeal against the unreasonable verdict," Winston Terracini told reporters.
The model's father, Tony Byrne, said he wept when he heard the verdict, which a jury took six days to reach.
Byrne's body was found at the bottom of a 29-m cliff at The Gap, a spot that often attracts suicide jumpers, on June 7, 1995. Her death was initially treated as a suicide, but further investigation led to suspicion Wood had thrown Byrne off the cliff.
During the three-month trial in the New South Wales Supreme Court, the prosecution argued that Wood killed Bryne because she was going to leave him and knew potentially damaging information about his employer's personal and business dealings.
The prosecutors brought in a physics expert who conducted tests that indicated it was unlikely Byrne's body could have landed where it did if she had leaped off the cliff.
The defense pointed to a previous suicide attempt and reports that Byrne was depressed as evidence she likely killed herself.
Wood faces a possible life in prison at a sentencing hearing expected next week.
Agencies
(China Daily 11/22/2008 page10)
