Allison Baden-Clay’s family have spoken about the “shock and disbelief” of Gerard Baden-Clay’s murder conviction being downgraded to manslaughter on Tuesday, and the reality he may walk from jail in four years’ time.
“He stood up there and said he didn’t do it. Now we’ve heard well, maybe he probably did, but it might have been an accident,” Allison’s cousin, Jodie Dann told The Courier Mail on Thursday.
The Courier Mail’s front page featured a public letter to Baden-Clay saying: “We know you are a liar, a cheat and a killer… Apologise to Allison’s family, show remorse, beg for forgiveness, and serve your time in jail.”
Baden-Clay was found guilty of the murder of his wife, Allison, in 2014, and sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole period of 15 years.
On Tuesday the Queensland Court of Appeal downgraded Baden-Clay’s conviction from murder to manslaughter.
His legal team was able to get the conviction downgraded to manslaughter by arguing that Gerard, who has always said that he knows absolutely nothing about what happened to Allison on the night she disappeared from their home, may have killed her by accident.
Gerard’s face was badly scratched when police turned up to investigate Allison’s disappearance. He said he cut himself shaving.
Now his legal team say the scratches may well have come from Allison, during an argument over Gerard’s affair.
The Queensland Court of Appeal agreed, saying that the jury may well have believed that Gerard had lied about how he got those scratches, but that didn’t mean that he was a murderer.
The crime of murder requires an intent to kill. Manslaughter refers to an accidental death at the hands of another.
The Queensland judges said the “jury could not have been satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the element of intent to kill … had been proved”.
He will now need to be sentenced for manslaughter, although he is expected to appeal that charge, too.
