Fearful witness silent on Wood fight with Byrne

A WEEK before Caroline Byrne's body was found at the bottom of a 30m cliff in Sydney's east, her boyfriend Gordon Wood - then the chauffeur of stockbroker Rene Rivkin - stood over her in a city gym and screamed abuse.

A WEEK before Caroline Byrne's body was found at the bottom of a 30m cliff in Sydney's east, her boyfriend Gordon Wood - then the chauffeur of stockbroker Rene Rivkin - stood over her in a city gym and screamed abuse.

"He (Wood) said, 'You're a f..king idiot, Caroline'," witness Christine McVeigh told the city's Burwood Court yesterday. "It appeared ... to be an attack. She looked quite fearful. Gordon seemed to be talking to her in an aggressive manner."

Mr Wood, a former driver and employee of the late Rivkin, is charged with murdering Byrne by hurling her off notorious suicide spot The Gap, in Sydney's Watsons Bay, on June 8, 1995.

But Ms McVeigh's account of Mr Wood towering over a "distressed and crying" Byrne in the days before her death remained a secret until April last year, because the former gym manager said she was intimidated by Rivkin's powerful connections and feared that she could be murdered if she spoke out.

"Yes, I was scared of them," said Ms McVeigh, who managed the inner-city gym where Mr Wood and Byrne trained.

"I just wasn't prepared to go forward (to the police) while Mr Rivkin was alive."

When Mr Wood's barrister, Winston Terracini SC, asked if she truly believed that her life would have been in danger if she had reported seeing the couple's fight in the gym, Ms McVeigh replied: "I don't know, I wasn't prepared to take that chance."

Ms McVeigh also told the court that on the day of Byrne's funeral, Mr Wood had gone into the gym to transfer her membership over to his name.

Ms McVeigh was the second witness to tell the court of a fear of reprisals from Rivkin. On Tuesday, Frederick Dowdle said he had a conversation with Mr Wood in the days after Byrne's death.

Mr Dowdle recalled that Mr Wood was "so cold and matter of fact" about the death of Byrne, who Mr Wood said had been killed in a car accident.

But Mr Dowdle said he did not come forward until February this year because he feared physical harm from Rivkin and from former federal Labor senator Graham Richardson.

Another witness, former pub manager Craig Martin, yesterday told the court that on the day Byrne died, he and his business partner had seen the 24-year-old model in Watsons Bay in the company of two men, one of whom he later identified as Mr Wood.

Mr Martin said he had remembered seeing Byrne because "she was a goodsort".

Mr Wood has denied being in Watsons Bay on the day of Byrne's death.

The committal hearing continues.