Boyfriend convicted of model's cliff murder

A sensational murder mystery that has gripped Sydney for more than a decade was finally laid to rest today when a British-born man was found guilty of killing his model girlfriend by throwing her off a cliff at a notorious suicide spot.

Gordon Wood, 45, had claimed that 24-year-old Caroline Byrne killed herself in 1995 because she was depressed. But 13 years after her body was found wedged in rocks at the foot of The Gap, on the southern headland of Sydney Harbour, a jury found that Wood hurled her off the 180-foot cliff, as if throwing a spear.

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The Supreme Court was told that Wood, who was born in Bath, was a jealous boyfriend who believed Byrne was about to leave him. The former gym instructor turned chauffeur also feared she might reveal damaging information about his employer, Rene Rivkin, a flamboyant, cigar- chomping Sydney stockbroker.

Rivkin, who employed Wood as a driver and fixer, committed suicide in 2005 after serving a jail sentence for insider trading. The Wood trial also heard allegations that Rivkin was a closet homosexual who had a coterie of gay lovers, including Wood.

The trial featured a parade of A-list witnesses, including Graham Richardson, a former Labor Cabinet minister, June Dally-Watkins, Australia's leading deportment expert, who employed Byrne, Cindy Pan, a television celebrity doctor who referred her for psychiatric treatment, and Tania Zaetta, a Bollywood star.

For Byrne's family, who were always convinced that Wood killed her, it was a long quest for justice. An inquest in 1998 delivered an open verdict, after which Wood left Australia. The family continued to press for him to be brought to trial, and in 2006, after a five-year police investigation and international manhunt, he was arrested in London and extradited.

A first trial opened in July last year, but had to be aborted after the jury were discovered to be planning a night-time excursion to The Gap, a popular tourist landmark, to carry out freelance inquiries.

Byrne's father Tony, mother Brenda and younger sister Deanna hugged each other and wept on hearing the verdict, which followed a three- month trial. Mr Byrne said outside court: "They were tears of joy. I'll never forget that moment when the foreman said guilty."

Her old employer Dally-Watkins, who was present, was also emotional. "We all knew that Caroline could never, never have taken her own life," she said.

The court was told that three witnesses heard a woman scream at The Gap on the night Byrne died. Wood told police that, after she went missing, he went to look her for at that precise spot because "Caroline's spirit" guided him there. Although it was a pitch black night, he pointed her corpse out to police, telling them: "I can see legs and a body." Wood, who will be sentenced next week, faces a possible life term. His lawyer said he planned to appeal.