Former NT cop Louis Mahony fronts murder trial in Charleville

HE WAS a decorated Territory cop and a national archery champion who told police his life partner had died in a freak accident. But police believe Louis Mahony was no grieving widower

Former NT police officer Louis Mahony outside the Charleville Court House. PICTURE: Jack Tran

HE WAS a decorated Territory cop and a national archery champion who told police his life partner had died in a freak accident. But police believe Louis Mahony was no grieving widower.

While he yesterday wept in the defendant’s box in a west Queensland courtroom, police allege Mahony asked colleagues which kind of poisons could kill someone, Googled the forensic science of head injuries and told associates you should be “able to do away with your missus” in the months before his de facto wife Lainie Coldwell was found in a pool of blood at the base of a tree in 2009.

Police also allege Mahony booked a Gold Coast getaway with his mistress just weeks after Ms Coldwell’s death.

More than 300 items of evidence including 163 witness statements were presented to Charleville Court House on the opening day of a murder committal hearing.

A friend of the former NT cop told the court of being asked to corroborate a fictional conversation about life insurance policies, while police admitted they had no idea what became of the possible murder weapon, an antique iron covered in blood spatter found at the base of the tree beside Ms Coldwell’s body.

Sergeant Gerard Thornton also admitted key crime scene photographs had been accidentally deleted. Forensic photos from the scene included images of an old iron covered in blood, but by the time Mahony was arrested last year, the iron had disappeared.

So had other police photos showing decorative lights hanging from the tree where Ms Coldwell was found unconscious with head injuries. She died in hospital days later. Mahony told police she had fallen from a ladder while trying to take lights out of the tree.

Defence lawyers claim the police case is circumstantial as Mahony faces a murder charge and four counts of fraud over multimillion-dollar life insurance policies taken out in his partner’s name shortly before her death.