LEGAL AID

25.4.2008
WOOD LEFT DANGLING OVER LACK OF FEES

THE impending murder trial of Gordon Wood is in disarray due to the lack of funding for his legal team. Wood's barrister, Winston Terracini, SC, is understood to be considering withdrawing from the matter after yesterday's decision by the Legal Aid Commission to offer Wood funding of only $50,000 for his estimated three- to four-month trial.

Wood, the one-time chauffeur to the late stockbroker Rene Rivkin, is due to stand trial on July 21 for the murder of his girlfriend Caroline Byrne in June 1995.

The 24-year-old's body was found wedged between rocks almost 12 metres out from the base of The Gap at Watsons Bay.

Given the estimated length of the trial, which is expected to involve 200 witnesses, legal sources say $50,000 would be insufficient to cover the cost of a single solicitor, let alone a senior barrister, who would usually charge between $5000 and $7000 a day.

When contacted by the Herald, Mr Terracini said he had been invited by the Legal Aid Commission to make a written submission regarding further funding for the trial.

Wood's solicitor, Michael Bowe, has said his client has no money, no job and is surviving on unemployment benefits. Wood's mother, Brenda, is assisting by paying his rent.

The Legal Aid Commission has asked Wood to contribute $340,000 for his legal fees, on the basis that his mother still has some assets.

However, Mr Bowe said that Mrs Wood, who is not in good health, had already exhausted her finances by funding her son's committal hearing. She has now sold her Sydney house and moved to a smaller one in Adelaide.

"She has no more funds to give him and she's totally stressed by this," Mr Bowe told the Herald.

The uncertainty about the funding for Wood's legal team has already led to the cancellation of a scheduled viewing of the murder scene which was due to take place.

Earlier this week Justice Graham Barr said that a viewing, involving a crane lowering a cage with the judge and two barristers over The Gap, would not go ahead while Wood was without proper representation. "I regard this matter as one in which Mr Wood should be represented by experienced trial counsel," Justice Barr told the Supreme Court.

Source: SMH (Kate McClymont)

Prospective jurors in the forthcoming murder trial of Gordon Wood might not be going over The Gap in a crane for a viewing after all.

Justice Graham Barr of the NSW Supreme Court this morning cancelled the cliff top viewing scheduled to take place on Friday.

Crown Prosecutor, Mark Tedeschi, QC, had requested that the jury be lowered over The Gap at Watson's Bay in order to properly view the location where the body of model Caroline Byrne was found after she was allegedly thrown to her death by Wood, her boyfriend, in June 1995.

Before making a decision on whether it was appropriate for the jury to be lowered over the cliff in a wire cage, the judge had agreed to a viewing himself.

However, these plans have been put on hold due to a pending appeal relating to Wood's application for legal aid.

An appeal against the Legal Aid Commission's refusal to grant Wood legal aid will not be held until Wednesday afternoon but the planned construction of the scaffolding for the cliff view was scheduled to commence at lunchtime today.

The court heard this morning that a large number of agencies including the police and the State Transit Authority, which had ordered buses to be rerouted, were working on Friday's trip and as scaffolding was due to be erected today, a decision on the viewing needed to be made.

"You can have [a decision] now. I'm calling it off," said Justice Barr, who went on to say that he was not sure whether the idea of going over the cliff in a cage was such an appropriate one anyway.

"It was sprung on the court. I think if proper consideration had been given we might have been able to approach this matter in a better way."

The judge then asked the Crown to make written submissions on exactly what he wanted the jury to see on the rock shelf and to canvas other means by which they could view the scene.

Wood's trial is due to commence on July 21.

Source: SMH (Kate McClymont)

The decision not only puts in jeopardy Mr Wood's legal team but also raises the prospect of a delay to the July trial, which is expected to run for a number of months and attract an enormous amount of media interest.

"I am very disappointed," said Mr Wood's barrister, Winston Terracini, SC, when contacted by the Herald yesterday.

Mr Terracini said it was "unusual in the extreme" for a person facing a murder trial "who has no income and no assets" to be refused legal aid. "It's preposterous," he said.

Wood, the late Rene Rivkin's former chauffeur, has been accused of throwing his girlfriend, Caroline Byrne, over The Gap at Watsons Bay in June 1995.

His solicitor, Michael Bowe, said his client long ago exhausted whatever funds he had.

Wood is surviving on unemployment benefits while his mother, Brenda, is helping by paying his rent.

Mr Bowe confirmed that Wood had been asked by the Legal Aid Commission to come up with $340,000 for his legal fees, on the basis that his mother still had some assets.

The solicitor said that Mrs Wood had already sold her house and dipped into her superannuation funds to pay for her son's committal hearing. "Now she has had to move to Adelaide and downsize totally," he said.

Mrs Wood, a pensioner, is very concerned about her own financial circumstances and her health, Mr Bowe said.

"She has no more funds to give him and she's totally stressed by this."

Mr Bowe said that there were continuing legal issues to be dealt with before the trial is set to start on July 21.

For instance, on April 18 the presiding Supreme Court judge, Justice Barr, along with the legal teams for the Crown and Woods, will be lowered over The Gap in a four-man cage for a special viewing of the area where Ms Byrne's body was found wedged head-first between giant boulders.

The Crown prosecutor, Mark Tedeschi, QC, recently told a Supreme Court hearing that it was important for the jury to see the location of the model's body. "The jury is entitled to have a very precise view of the correct and incorrect position," he said.

The initial plan had been for the judge and jury to view the location by sea.

"Last time we were here, we were going to be jumping off a boat; now we're going down in a basket," Justice Barr told the court.

Mr Bowe said an appeal against the refusal of legal aid will be heard on April 16, two days before the cliff-top descent.

Until the appeal is decided, "Gordon's legal team consists of little old me. It's David versus Goliath at the moment," he said.

Source: SMH (Kate McClymont)
Image: SMH.COM.AU