‘Master manipulator’ staged death on mower, jury told
Andrew Stafford |
A woman found dead in her pyjamas next to a ride-on mower was an elaborately staged scene to cover up her strangulation by her husband, a jury has been told.
Former RAAF pilot Robert John Crawford, 49, pleaded not guilty on Monday to murdering his wife Frances Elizabeth Crawford at Upper Lockyer, west of Toowoomba on July 29, 2024.
Jurors were shown graphic photos of Mrs Crawford in situ with the mower at the bottom of a stone retaining wall on the couple’s sprawling rural property on Monday afternoon.
Prosecutor Chris Cook pointed to evidence of extensive bruising around Mrs Crawford’s neck area and blood coming from her nose.
He told the Brisbane Supreme Court jury they would hear the bruising and abrasions visible on Mrs Crawford’s neck were inconsistent with being crushed by a mower.
The jury was shown injuries to a fingernail, which Mr Cook said indicated her attempts to fight off her husband.
He asked why Mrs Crawford would mow the lawn in her pyjamas on a freezing cold July night, when Crawford told police in a statement she had only ridden the mower twice and struggled to operate it properly.
Mr Cook said Crawford murdered his wife in the context of a long relationship breakdown.
Mr Cook described the former RAAF pilot as a “love rat” and “master manipulator”, alleging he embarked on a long campaign to make his wife’s death appear a tragic accident.
“It was Mr Crawford who caused Mrs Crawford’s body to be at the bottom of the retaining wall of the property and it was Mr Crawford who also moved the lawnmower over the retaining wall,” he said.
Four women with whom Crawford had affairs are due to be called as witnesses.
“He made out to be a man with good Christian values,” Mr Cook said.
“However, his story did not match his behaviour.
“He was a man who lived a double life for a long time.”
Mr Cook described Crawford as “a cheater, adulterer, love rat, philanderer and womaniser”.
The jury was told Crawford was motivated to kill his wife because he stood to lose financially in a divorce settlement, scuppering plans for an early retirement.
Ms Crawford wavered between divorcing her husband and giving him the chance to prove himself to her and their three children, jurors heard.
She had set her husband a detailed list of boundaries, including “deal breakers” that would lead to divorce.
The deal breakers included sexual or emotional infidelity, pornography and masturbation, the court was told.
The couple had undergone extensive counselling before Mrs Crawford’s death, with the marriage described as “toxic” by Mr Cook.
He said at one point Frances Crawford told her sister: “I wish Bob was in a car accident in a tree and died, because I’m tired of dealing with infidelity and emotional abuse”.
But jurors were warned by the alleged killer’s barrister they had been given an incomplete version of the evidence.
Saul Holt KC told jurors to assume nothing they had been told was correct in the circumstantial case.
“It’s like a thousand-piece puzzle where he (Mr Cook) has only shown you six pieces and bluntly, they’re the wrong shape,” he said.
“The question for you is not whether Robert Crawford was always a good husband; he was not.
“The question is whether any of that turns a lawn mower at the bottom of a rock wall into a murder, when it was not.”
He said text messages between the couple late on the night of Mrs Crawford’s death were crucial to the case.
The jury will be taken to the site of the alleged murder on Wednesday.
Justice Lincoln Crowley told the jury the viewing would help them to understand the evidence.
The trial is expected to hear from up to 47 witnesses over the next three weeks.
AAP