Ex-boss says Gerard Baden-Clay was ‘strange’ but wife Allison was ‘highly regarded’ in the workplace

AS Brisbane prepares to rally behind Allison Baden-Clay, a former employer of the Baden-Clays has spoken out about Gerard, confirming there were allegations of impropriety against the killer.

GERARD Baden-Clay was a “strange” employee who left Flight Centre under an integrity cloud, company founder Graham Turner said.

Mr Turner spoke about the convicted killer for the first time ahead of a rally today to protest against the downgrading of his murder conviction to manslaughter.

He described Gerard, 45, in polar opposite terms to wife Allison, who also once worked for the firm as its global human resources manager.

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“I remember her quite well,” Mr Turner told The Courier-Mail.

“She was highly regarded, successful, both in the shop and when she came into recruitment – very highly regarded.

“Gerard was a bit of a slightly different character but I certainly remember him. I did know him but not well. He was considered a little bit strange.

“She was certainly the person that everyone liked and was very good at what she was doing.”

Allison and Gerard met while working in the city offices of Flight Centre.

She was the company’s high-flying human resources manager and he went from sales to running the business’s new 24-hour call centre.

Other staff have similar recollections to Mr Turner, describing Baden-Clay as “posh” and exceptionally proud of his heritage as the great grandson of Scouts founder Robert Baden-Powell.

When the couple married in 1997 they travelled overseas on their honeymoon and both left the business.

Flight Centre founder Graham Turner worked with both Allison and Gerard Baden-Clay and describes them as being very different from one another.

There have long been unconfirmed rumours they left because Gerard was caught abusing the company’s commission system at the time and taking money he was not entitled to.

Mr Turner said he had heard a similar story of financial regularities.

“That was the story,” he said. “But I think it was one of those things that couldn’t be proved. So he was let go, but not necessarily tried for that.”

Several years later, after the couple returned to Brisbane, Flight Centre approached Allison to perform some more work with them.

Gerard was rehired in 2000 to work in the company’s new Global Online team, which was seeking to make money out of the growing popularity of the internet.

The team was prohibitively expensive and Baden-Clay famously told his trial he and his manager made history as the first people Flight Centre ever made redundant.

Allison Baden-Clay was “the person that everyone liked and was very good at what she was doing”.

“In our wisdom somehow someone employed him back (a second time),” Mr Turner said.

“It wasn’t necessarily his fault that that didn’t work.

“It was just I don’t think we were ready in what we were trying to do in that particular area at that time.”

Baden-Clay responded by attempting to sue Flight Centre in the District Court, but the case appeared to go no further than some initial documents being lodged.

Flight Centre will support the rally in King George Square today, which will call for an appeal and highlight community concerns about domestic violence.

Mr Turner said senior executives and staff would attend in a show of public support for Allison’s family and any employees who may be affected by domestic violence.

“This is the classic case if you like,” he said. “It’s not obvious within our organisation but inevitably with 18,000 staff it will be there.

“It’s the sort of thing that does get hidden.

“A lot of the time people don’t want to admit to it. It’s one of the things we try to give people support if they need it.”

The business was not making a statement about the downgrading of Baden-Clay’s murder conviction to manslaughter, he said.

“I know there’s a bit of a thing about the sentence. That’s not for us to make a judgment on,” he said.