Australian expert linked to murder case in US

An Australian toxicologist giving evidence in Jakarta was an ‘unindicted co-conspirator’ in a US murder case.

An Australian toxicologist, prev­iously named by US prosecutors as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the American Beauty murder case, has told a Jakarta court there was insufficient ­evidence to prove that Austral­ian-educated Mirna Salihin died of cyanide poisoning.

Michael Robertson appeared on Wednesday as a witness for Jessica Wongso, a 27-year-old, Indonesian-born Australian resident accused of murdering her friend by lacing her iced coffee with cyanide at a Jakarta cafe.

Witnesses have said Salihin began convulsing and frothing from the mouth after taking a sip of the coffee, which Ms Wongso had bought for her before she ­arrived at the cafe on January 6. She died soon after.

The apparent discovery of small traces of cyanide in Salihin’s stomach has formed the basis of what is largely a circumstantial case against Ms Wongso.

But Dr Robertson, who two years ago testified for the ­defence in the case against ­Brisbane wife-murderer Gerard Baden-Clay, said there was “no toxicological evidence for the ­ingestion of cyanide”.

He told the court forensic ­investigators had not detected cyanide in the victim’s stomach or her urine,which is where cyanide would commonly be found had it contributed to her death. “Similarly, bile and liver samples were also negative,” he said.

Dr Robertson was the second Australian expert witness for the defence to question the finding of death by cyanide.

This month Australian forensic pathologist Beng Beng Ong said cyanide was unlikely to have been the cause of death. Dr Ong was deported from Indonesia soon after for failing to obtain the correct visa.

Dr Robertson was chief toxic­ologist at the San Diego Medical Examiner’s Office when his colleague and lover Kristin Rossum was charged in 2000 with the murder of her husband Gregory de Villiers. His body was found in bed surrounded by rose petals, in a scene apparently inspired by the movie American Beauty.

In 2002, Rossum was convicted of murder by administering a lethal dose of the drug fentanyl, reportedly because her husband had discovered her affair with Dr Robertson, who was also married, and her methamphetamine use.

Dr Robertson was named as an “unindicted co-conspirator” by prosecutors, who alleged during the trial that he helped his then lover steal fentanyl from the lab where they worked.

Evidence at the trial included passionate emails between Dr Robertson and Rossum, and documents revealing his expert knowledge of fentanyl.

He was never charged, and before Rossum’s trial returned to Australia, where he has since ­remarried and runs a forensic consulting business in Brisbane.

Dr Robertson’s links to the US case were noted in court at the Wongso trial on Wednesday, when the lead prosecutor read out a newspaper report to argue he was not a credible witness.