Gerard Baden-Clay: DPP lodges High Court appeal over reduced charge
CONVICTED wife killer Gerard Baden-Clay faces a potential setback in his bid to have his sentence reduced.
Crime & Justice
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QUEENSLAND’S top prosecutor has privately told the Queensland Government he will appeal to the High Court to reinstate Gerard Baden-Clay’s murder conviction.
Director of Public Prosecutions Michael Byrne, QC, informed the Government before Christmas he intended to file for special leave for an appeal on January 4 – the eve of an appeal deadline and same day the High Court’s registry reopens after its holiday shutdown.
BADEN-CLAY: Case for murder revealed
It comes after widespread public protests over the decision to downgrade Baden-Clay’s charge to manslaughter.
Baden-Clay was last year sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering his wife, and the mother of his three children, Allison Baden-Clay.
But Queensland’s Court of Appeal earlier this month downgraded his conviction to manslaughter, delivering another blow to an already grieving family and outraging many Queenslanders, who were captivated and disturbed by the killing of an ordinary Queensland mother and her marital demons.
It is understood Mr Byrne has been privately working on the laborious appeal to the High Court over the holidays – including when 4000 people rallied in Brisbane’s city on December 18 to demand the State Government take the case to the High Court.
The Government refused to be drawn into the matter. Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath yesterday declined to comment.
Today’s revelation is a potential setback for Baden-Clay, who faces uncertainty about how many more years he will spend in jail for killing his wife.
The Court of Appeal’s ruling set aside his life sentence and ordered the DPP to file submissions on what penalty Baden-Clay should face by January 15.
Baden-Clay’s defence team has until January 22 to put forward what time he should serve. Manslaughter can still carry a life sentence.
A spokesman for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions told The Courier-Mail yesterday: “The Director of Public Prosecutions had been independently considering if there are legal grounds to seek special leave to appeal the matter before High Court of Australia.
“The Palaszczuk Government, like the rest of the community, is awaiting the DPP’s decision in relation to this matter.”
Allison Baden-Clay’s family will be in limbo until the High Court determines whether it will grant leave to hear the case.
An overwhelming majority of special leave applications fail. In 2014-15, 59 of 443 special leave applications were granted, about 13 per cent.
The Courier-Mail revealed yesterday prosecutors chose not to pursue evidence police believed could have helped prove Baden-Clay had a financial motive for killing his wife.
Baden-Clay phoned his wife’s life insurer a week before he killed her, according to police bail documents, but prosecutors did not focus on this piece of evidence.
Although there was evidence of an insurance policy on Mrs Baden-Clay’s life, prosecutors disavowed any suggestion that a financially strapped Baden-Clay had killed her to cash in.
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