For 13 years, since Sydney model Caroline Byrne was found dead beneath the cliffs at The Gap, her family never doubted who killed her. Now Caroline’s father Tony tells of his unwavering conviction that her tragic death hid a darker secret…
Tony Byrne’s eyes glisten as he gazes out over wind-blown cliffs to a rolling sea.
“Justice is a beautiful feeling ? I don’t think words can describe this overwhelming feeling,” he says. “All I could do when I heard the guilty verdict was come outside, look to the sky and give thanks. The truth won out for Caroline.”
It’s taken an exhaustive 13 years for the truth to win out. At last, Gordon Wood, Caroline’s overzealous lover, and personal gofer to disgraced ex-stockbroker Rene Rivkin, is behind bars.
Wood is to be sentenced this week over the bizarre murder that saw him hurl Caroline from The Gap in the black of night on June 7, 1995.
The Gap, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, is a place where people go to jump ? a drop-off point for the depressed and down at heel. Wood hoped his girlfriend’s death would be seen as just another suicide, carried out by a hysterical girl prone to episodes of depression and dramatics.
Tony, 72, has always maintained that the death of Caroline, who at 24 was in the prime of her life, was not “just another suicide” ? despite Wood’s defence team claiming this was what had occurred.
To honour Caroline’s memory, Tony has established the Caroline Byrne Memorial Fund to benefit the Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick. Donations can be sent to The Child Protection Unit, Locked Bag 5, Randwick, NSW 2031.
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