Gerard Baden-Clay among those who manipulate crime scenes to mislead investigations: researcher

TWO deep scratches on his face would contribute to Gerard Baden-Clay’s downfall. By passing them off as shaving injuries, he joined a unique cohort.

140726 TWAM Court exhibit from the Gerard Baden-Clay murder trial. Images of scratches and cuts on Gerard Baden-Clay's body. Picture: Captioned As

THEY were two deep scratches on his face that would contribute to Gerard Baden-Clay’s downfall.

And by attempting to pass them off as shaving injuries, Baden-Clay joined a small cohort of homicide offenders who manipulate crime scenes to mislead investigators, a Queensland forensic criminologist has said.

Days after an appeals court downgraded Baden-Clay’s murder conviction to manslaughter over the 2012 death of his wife Allison, Dr Claire Ferguson from Queensland University of Technology has shed further insight into the under-researched area of crime scene staging.

She said only about 3 to 8 per cent of homicide offenders manipulated evidence at a crime scene to mislead investigators and avoid arrest, and those who did had often killed an intimate partner or someone else who was known to them.

“Sometimes the staging is meticulously planned in advance but it can also be impromptu after an unintended killing — it may be ‘I’ve killed him/her, I can’t go to prison for the rest of my life’,” Dr Ferguson said.

“As proposed by the prosecution expert, the small cuts on Gerard Baden-Clay’s face suggested he had used his razor to cut over the top of existing scratches to try to make it look like a legitimate shaving injury.

Gerard and Allison Baden-Clay at the time of their engagement.

“Relative to other offenders who stage scenes, Baden-Clay’s efforts were more sophisticated and required quite a bit of effort — moving the body, disposing of it, cleaning up evidence and creating a facade of a grieving husband for police and the public.”

Dr Ferguson said crime scenes could be staged to appear as suicides, home invasions, accidental deaths, car accidents or missing persons.

“Some of these involve elaborate efforts like putting the body in a car and driving it into water, setting it on fire or pushing it over a cliff, while others involve few, basic behaviours, like putting a gun in someone’s hand and reporting they committed suicide,” she said.

There are about 15 cases a year in Australia where crime scenes are staged, but there could be more cases where the offenders were successful and got away with the crime.

Those who are caught out often are because of inconsistencies between the victim’s injuries and the crime scene or witness testimonies, there is evidence a crime scene has been cleaned up, or the scene does not appear consistent with the alleged motive.

And sometimes, such as in the case of Baden-Clay, sometimes the offender’s injuries are not consistent with their own story.

Allison’s body was found in the Kholo Creek Bridge area at Anstead, Brisbane.

But crime scene staging is an area that is largely under-researched in forensic criminology, Dr Ferguson said.

“We may be seeing an increase in staging efforts by offenders, possibly because of the ‘CSI effect’ — people may be learning techniques on TV and changing their behaviour to avoid being caught,” she said.

“But it takes only one sceptical investigator to ask questions and seek out answers for how the evidence came to be in order to uncover these efforts.”

Queensland Court of Appeal judges set aside Baden-Clay’s murder conviction and replaced it with manslaughter on Tuesday.

They said while it was open to the jury to find Baden-Clay had lied during his trial about the cause of the facial injuries, and that he had tried to hide Allison’s body, there remained “a reasonable hypothesis consistent with innocence of murder”.

They also said the facial scratches could have in fact been from Allison attacking her husband.

“There was no evidence of the circumstances in which the fingernail scratches were inflicted on the appellant; they were conceivably caused by his wife in an angry attack on him,” the judgment said.

“In endeavouring to make her stop, he had killed her without intending to do so.”

Tuesday’s verdict has caused outrage across the country. A petition calling on Queensland’s attorney-general to appeal Baden-Clay’s downgraded conviction has reached more than 57,000 signatures, smashing its initial target of 10,000.

Gerard Baden-Clay pictured during his trial.

The change.org petition reads: “We, the people of Australia, are outraged by the decision of the Queensland court to reduce Gerard Baden-Clay’s conviction for the murder of his wife, Allison Baden-Clay, to the lesser charge of manslaughter.

“We are requesting the Queensland Attorney-General files an appeal against this decision.”

The state has 28 days to seek legal advice about whether to lodge a special leave application with the High Court to consider an appeal.

But Acting Attorney-General Cameron Dick said Director of Public Prosecutions Michael Byrne needed time to consider all available legal advice to ensure any application was as strong as possible.

“This is a complex case involving complex legal issues as well as factual issues,” Mr Dick said.

“We need to give him time to properly consider this. I’ve asked the DPP not to do a rushed job, but the right job.”

However, Mr Dick sympathised with those concerned about the process.

“Three young children now live their lives without their mother and on all of the legal determinations their mother’s life was taken unlawfully by their father,” he said.

“So I understand the deep community concern.”

Baden-Clay had in August challenged last year’s conviction for murdering his wife on a number of grounds, including that the jury’s verdict was unreasonable.

Legal experts say the appeal court’s shock decision means Baden-Clay could be out of jail within a few years.