Wife-killing ex-cop's decade of murder denials

He spent the past 10 years denying he killed his partner, and now this former police officer's latest attempt to dodge his murder conviction has surfaced in court once again.

HE spent the past 10 years denying he killed Lainie Coldwell and now this former police officer's latest attempt to dodge his murder conviction has failed.

A jury found Louis James Mahoney guilty of murder over the death of Ms Coldwell in August 2009.

The mother-of-one died from a severe depressed fracture to the back of her head, with Mahoney claiming his partner fell from a tree while hanging party lights.

In 2015, Mahoney was charged with Ms Coldwell's murder and in 2017 convicted of the charge after three experts told a Toowoomba Supreme Court jury she would have had multiple injuries if she fell from a height.

The trial also heard Mahony was having an affair when Ms Coldwell died and that there were multiple insurance policies on her life worth around $750,000.

During the trial, the court heard Ms Coldwell had told her mother that she had confronted Mahoney about his affairs, including with co-workers at the meatworks where they both worked.

She later told her mother she was going to leave Mahoney, a former Northern Territory police officer, and she had taken out a $750,000 insurance policy on her own life.

Mahoney told his partner's mother he had been unable to give Lainie CPR after she fell from the tree because she had dirt, mud and leaves all over her.

After Lainie's memorial service' Mahoney told Lainie's parents he and Lainie had taken out a policy that insured Lainie's life for $1.5 million.

Under Lainie's will, her brother and parents were to get the proceeds of the $750,000 life insurance policy.

After her death, Mahoney made claims on the two policies that insured his late partner's life, provoking an insurer to look into the matter, the court heard.

The trial heard how before Ms Mahoney's death, he had asked a co-worker for advice about what he would need to poison someone.

Immediately after the $1.5 million insurance policy was taken out, he had done a computer search for "accidental deaths per year" and "poisons".

Mahoney appealed on five grounds, claiming there had been a miscarriage of justice at his trial, but each was rejected by the appeal court judges.

He claimed some evidence by three pathologists, and that of a nurse and a paramedic, who found the only injury to Ms Coldwell was to the back of her head, was inadmissible. 

He also challenged the evidence of Ms Coldwell's brother, who said she would not have attempted to scale a ladder to reach lights in the tree because she would have known it was too dangerous.

Mahoney was sentenced to life in jail with parole after serving just 13 years.

The 45-year-old appealed the conviction and on Friday the Queensland Court of Appeal delivered its judgement saying his claims of a miscarriage of justice could not be validated.

Mahoney argued the judge misdirected the jury; that the expert witnesses who testified about his partner's injuries should not have been relied on; and that he was taken by "surprise" by some of their evidence as the "opinions were not specifically referred to in the expert pathologists' pre-trial reports".

Court of Appeal President, Justice Walter Sofronoff, said during the trial the likelihood of someone falling from a tree, suffering additional serious injuries became common ground.

Justice Sofronoff said the case against Mahoney was extremely strong.

"He had strong sexual, emotional and financial motives to murder Lainie," Justice Sofronoff said.

"The facts from which those motives could be inferred were not challenged and, of course, they were not contradicted by any contrary evidence either."

The Crown led evidence from two biomechanical engineers, who found it was unlikely to highly unlikely that the injuries could have been caused by a fall.

"The defence could not challenge either the facts proved by the Crown to raise motive to murder or the other facts relied upon as circumstances pointing to murder," Justice Sofronoff said.

He said it was a powerful Crown case that was simply unanswered by any contrary evidence and not much diminished by cross-examination of witnesses.

The appeal was unanimously dismissed by three judges.

- NewsRegional

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