NSW: Wood jailed for at least 13 years for girlfriend's murder

AAP General News (Australia)
12-04-2008
NSW: Wood jailed for at least 13 years for girlfriend's murder

By Margaret Scheikowski

SYDNEY, Dec 4 AAP - Gordon Wood did not plan to murder his girlfriend but threw her
over a Sydney cliff after becoming enraged during an argument, says the judge who jailed
him for at least 13 years.

Justice Graham Barr said Wood had already been punished because the matter had been
"hanging over his head" for 10 years as a result of delays caused by investigating authorities.

"Consequently, the sentence should be mitigated," Justice Barr said in the NSW Supreme
Court on Thursday.

Contrary to crown submissions on the aggravating features of the offence, the judge
concluded Caroline Byrne's murder was not premeditated, nor carried out for financial
reasons.

While the public gallery was full, the atmosphere was calm and less emotional than
when Wood's guilty verdict was delivered late last month.

His family and other supporters stood up as a "mark of respect" for the 46-year-old,
as he was led up from the cells into the dock to learn his fate.

Wood's lawyers on Friday will lodge his appeal over his conviction for murdering the
24-year-old model at The Gap, a notorious Sydney suicide spot, late on the night of June
7, 1995.

The judge set a maximum jail term of 17 years and four months, noting Wood's earliest
date for release on parole would be October 20, 2021.

Ms Byrne's father, Tony, later said he was satisfied with the jail term, adding that
his family had always been focused on the guilty verdict, not the sentence.

But Wood's sister Jacqueline Schmidt said her family was devastated by the sentence
and would continue campaigning to prove his innocence.

The judge rejected a crown submission that the offence was aggravated by the fact that
Wood, then a driver for wealthy stockbroker Rene Rivkin, had a financial motive for the
murder.

The crown contended Ms Byrne had knowledge of the now late Mr Rivkin's business and
personal affairs, which would hurt him if made public.

"It seems unlikely that Ms Byrne knew anything that could, should she choose to reveal
it, hurt Mr Rivkin," the judge said.

"Of course, the court is concerned with the offender's perception of what might happen
if a word were dropped out of place, but the evidence falls short of establishing beyond
reasonable doubt that it was to safeguard his financial interests that the offender killed
Ms Byrne."

Rather, Justice Barr concluded, "the offence was committed in a rage" and involved
no premeditation.

He found that when Wood and Ms Byrne went to Watsons Bay on the day of her death, their
relations were "affable".

"I am satisfied that the violence that led to Ms Byrne's death erupted at the end of
a long, noisy and serious argument which probably commenced during the evening ..."

The judge said the evidence failed to satisfy him what the argument had been about,
while another difficulty related to the presence of an unidentified second man.

"It is impossible to say what were his interests and contribution to the argument,
or what part, if any, he played in causing Ms Byrne's death," the judge said.

Noting that Wood was not charged until 2006, the judge said the first year of the 11-year
delay was attributable to Wood.

"He falsely put it about that Ms Byrne had committed suicide and the police were inclined
to accept that it was so," he said.

But from the time Wood became a murder suspect in 1996 up until his arrest, things
moved slowly "because the police had no firm idea of what their case was".

This 10-year delay, during which Wood was of good behaviour and did not hide from authorities,
was the responsibility of the investigating authorities, the judge said.

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