Gerard Baden-Clay: Director of Public Prosecution says Court of Appeal decision contained errors

QUEENSLAND’S top prosecutor has taken aim at the Court of Appeal’s decision to downgrade Gerard Baden-Clay’s murder conviction, claiming it made two key errors in reaching its verdict.

Court made Baden-Clay ‘errors’

QUEENSLAND’S top prosecutor claims the Court of Appeal was wrong to substitute its own views of the evidence for the jury’s verdict to convict Gerard Baden-Clay of murder over the death of his wife.

A special leave application, filed to the High Court by the Director of Public Prosecutions this afternoon, outlines two key grounds in a bid to overturn the Court of Appeal decision last month to downgrade Baden-Clay’s conviction to manslaughter.

According to the application, obtained by The Courier-Mail, the grounds include that the Court of Appeal made errors in:

- The application of principles concerning circumstantial evidence and in substituting its own views of the evidence, including a factual assertion not established by the evidence, for the jury verdict which was reasonably open on the whole of the evidence.

Gerard Baden-Clay’s murder charge was downgraded to manslaughter at the end of 2015.

- Concluding that the post-offence conduct evidence remained neutral on the issue of intent and that the jury could not properly have been satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the element of intent to kill or do grievous bodily harm had been proved.

Director of Public Prosecutions Michael Byrne QC has asked that the High Court set aside the decision to downgrade Baden-Clay’s charge and dismiss the appeal.

In the alternative, he has asked that the appeal be reheard.

In 2014, a jury found Baden-Clay guilty of murdering his wife Allison more than two years earlier.

The decision last month to overturn that verdict and substitute it with a conviction of manslaughter sparked widespread protests and calls for it to be appealed to the High Court.

Director of Public Prosecutions Michael Byrne QC. Picture: Tim Marsden

State Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath. Picture: Annette Dew

State Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath said the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Michael Byrne QC formally applied for special leave to appeal Baden-Clay’s acquittal in the High Court. “It is important that this matter now is able to progress unhindered,” she said.

“Consequently I will not be commenting on the matter as it goes forward, but I am pleased that application has been lodged today.” Ms D’Ath brushed off the suggestion the government had bowed to overwhelming public pressure to appeal Baden-Clay’s acquittal, which included a huge public rally in Brisbane last month.

The decision to appeal was entirely up to the state’s top prosecutor, not the state government, she said.

“The director of public prosecutions has given this considerable thought in looking at the decision and in determining there are legal grounds to progress an application for special leave to appeal, and that is the basis on which he is going forward,” she said.

The DPP has 28 days to submit his outline of argument and Baden-Clay will then have a further 21 days to respond.