Chủ Nhật, 17 tháng 3, 2013

Baden-Clay's mistress takes stand

Gerard Baden-Clay

COURT: An artist's sketch of Gerard Baden-Clay during the committal hearing in Brisbane. Source: The Courier-Mail

FOLLOW our rolling coverage of day four of the hearing to determine whether Gerard Baden-Clay will stand trial for the murder of his wife, Allison.

10.33am: The court heard Ms McHugh was shown a drawing of the floor plan of her unit by detectives during the investigation.

She identified the handwriting as Baden-Clay's.

Questioning her on the first statement, defence barrister Peter Davis said Ms McHugh started working with Baden-Clay at Century 21 Westside in April, 2007.

He asked why she had applied for a job with Century 21.

''I'd known Gerard as my real estate agent previously,'' she said.

''I'd spoken to his mother...so I felt that there was a familiarity and I was comfortable with the way they conducted their business.''

Toni McHugh

EVIDENCE: Toni McHugh had an affair with Gerard Baden-Clay. Picture: File

She said they started their sexual relationship in August, 2008.

''To be honest I link it to the properties I was selling at the time,'' she said.

''Over the years we did recognise August as being a starting date.''

The court heard Ms McHugh's relationship with her husband - the father of her two children - ended during the affair.

''We had had a difficult relationship for many years,'' she said.

''My decision to end the relationship with Rob was based on still having a respect for him...not being able to remain in an unfaithful relationship.

Dr Margaret Stark Baden-Clay witness

WITNESS: Dr Margaret Stark said it was her opinion the deep gouges on Gerard Baden-Clay's face were caused by fingernails.

''It was nothing Gerard suggested at all.''

10.24am: Gerard Baden-Clay's mistress Toni McHugh has taken the stand to give evidence at his committal.

Ms McHugh provided police with five separate statements throughout the course of their investigation.

Wearing a black suit, Ms McHugh, a property manager, took several minutes to appear after she was called.

The court heard Ms McHugh gave her first statement to police on April 21, 2012 - the day after her lover reported his wife missing.

10.15am: Mr Davis pointed out that Dr Stark was careful in her report not to say the scratches ''are from fingernails'', only that they are consistent with nail gouges.

''They don't look like razor blade injuries in my experience just because of the width of them,'' she said.

Dr Stark said it very difficult to be accurate when determining the age of different injuries from photographs alone.

''It's very difficult to be accurate,'' she said.

''It's much better to see the injury and give comment on the actual injury, and then the photograph acts as a memoir.''

She said she believed the superficial injuries were fresher because of their red colour.

''They just look slightly different and it might be possible that the redder injuries were caused at a different time,'' Dr Stark said.

''There is a suggestion that they are caused at different times in regards to the reddening (of the superficial scratches) as opposed to the yellowing (of the deeper gouges).

Scratches on Baden-Clay's neck, which bruised the skin, could have been caused by someone scratching him through clothing, she said.

Dr Stark said she had seen cases where someone had been ''grabbed by their clothing" resulting in the kind of scratch and ''pin-point bruising like you see here'' on Baden-Clay's neck.

She said she did not believe a large patch of graze-like scratches on Baden-Clay's chest was self-inflicted.

''That would hurt quite a lot to do,'' she said.

''I've never seen any self-inflicted injuries like that.

''It's very unusual to get bruising...from self-inflicted injury.

''You are more likely to get abrasions and incised wounds from self inflicted injuries.

''It looks more to me like pressure through clothing.''

A similar injury near Baden-Clay's shoulder could also have been caused from pressure through clothing.

Dr Stark said a backpack pulled hard against the shoulder could cause such an injury.

9.57am: The first witness to give evidence, Dr Margaret Stark, has told the Brisbane Magistrates Court she studied images of injuries on Gerard Baden-Clay's body at the request of investigating detectives.

Dr Stark, the director of the NSW Police clinical forensic medicine unit, said it was her opinion that the deep gouges on Gerard Baden-Clay's face were caused by fingernails.

She said superficial scratches next to the gouges were caused later - likely by a razor blade.

''(Your report said) the more trivial injuries are fairly characteristic of razor cuts and appear more recent,'' prosecutor Danny Boyle said.

He asked why Dr Stark believed the larger scratches were caused by fingernails.

''The abrasions are wider and not equal, sort of irregular,'' she said.

''That is suggestive that they could have been caused by fingernails.''

Dr Stark told the court Allison's fingernails were long enough to have caused such damage.

Defence barrister Peter Davis asked why one of the ''fingernail scratches'' moved away at a different angle to the others.

Dr Stark explained it was because neither the person scratching or the person being scratched would have remained perfectly still.

''It's a dynamic situation,'' she said.

''Is there any science to this, or is it just speculation?'' Mr Davis asked.

''I don't think there are any published papers quoting the dynamics of fingernails...it's almost just common sense,'' she replied.

Mr Davis said Dr Stark could not give expert evidence on ''common sense''.

''I suppose it's years of experience examining (scratch injuries),'' she said.

9am: Gerard Baden-Clay's mistress Toni McHugh will take the stand this morning on day four of a hearing that will determine whether he will stand trial for the murder of his wife.

Baden-Clay, 42, is charged with murdering his wife Allison and interfering with her corpse.

Allison was reported missing by her husband on April 20, 2012.

He told police he had left her watching The Footy Show when he went to bed the night before and woke up to find her gone.

Her body was found 10 days later on the banks of the Kholo Creek.

Chief Magistrate Brendan Butler will decide whether there is enough evidence to send the real estate agent to trial at the end of the six-day committal hearing.

Today's hearing will start at 9.30am.


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