Gordon Wood on 60 Minutes. Picture: Channel 9 Source: The Daily Telegraph Gordon Wood says he is struggling to just to life since being acquitted of murdering his girlfriend.GORDON Wood has been caught out lying on national television during a paid interview designed to sway public opinion his way.
They were lies easily exposed by evidence presented at his trial - and repeated in the judgment by the Court of Criminal Appeal that overturned Mr Wood's conviction for murdering his girlfriend, model Caroline Byrne.
During Sunday night's $200,000 interview with Channel 9's 60 Minutes, Mr Wood, 47, cried as he told reporter Liz Hayes he had been allowed to hold Ms Byrne's hand as she lay in the Glebe morgue.
He had gone there after her body was recovered from the rocks at the bottom of The Gap at Watsons Bay in June 1995.
He did not mention in the interview that he had asked morgue staff if he could see her "tits" at the same time, as his committal hearing was told in a statement from Glebe morgue attendant Kenneth Nichols.
The interview was promoted as the program that would change the minds of anyone who still thought Mr Wood was guilty of throwing Ms Byrne off The Gap.
Mr Wood, who was freed from jail by the court in February and has always denied killing Ms Byrne, said it was "nonsense" that he had ever said he was led to The Gap by Caroline's "spirit".
He has said he went there after driving around after he woke up about 11.30pm to find Ms Byrne not at their Kings Cross apartment.
However, in an interview with police on June 14, 1996, and repeated in the Court of Criminal Appeal judgment, when asked how he found Ms Byrne's car at The Gap, he said he "just had a feeling ... I believe in spirituality and all that and I think the kind of connection Carol and I had was very strong ... there was some kind of spiritual communication to me to go there."
Mr Wood also told 60 Minutes it was "nonsense" to say he had looked off The Gap and seen Ms Byrne's legs on the rocks below.
However, the Court of Criminal devoted 10 paragraphs to evidence given by Caroline's brother Peter Byrne, Rose Bay police, the Police Rescue Squad and two friends of Gordon and Caroline who all said he had told them he could see her legs by torchlight on a pitch-black night.
Mr Wood was also asked about an interview he gave to the rival Channel 7 Witness program in 1998 when, at the end of the interview with the cameras still rolling, he asked interviewer Paul Barry: "Do you think I did it?"
Mr Wood told 60 Minutes Barry had told him he thought Mr Wood was innocent - but that exchange had not been broadcast by Witness.
Barry yesterday denied the claim, saying he had told Mr Wood exactly what was recorded by the Witness cameras which was: "I don't know, I'm like the coroner."
"He's not telling the truth, I didn't tell him that. I said 'I find it pretty hard to believe you did it but ... I'm like the coroner, I don't know'," Barry said last night.
Ms Byrne's father, Tony, is working with his legal team on challenging Mr Wood's acquittal in the High Court after the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions Lloyd Babb SC refused to appeal.
60 Minutes vs reality
What Gordon Wood said on 60 Minutes: It is ‘‘nonsense’’ that he had ever said he was led by Caroline’s ‘‘spirit’’ to The Gap to find Ms Byrne’s body. ‘‘The only evidence of that comes from Tony Byrne.’’
Fact: In a police interview on June 14, 1996, when asked how he found Ms Byrne’s car at The Gap, Mr Wood said he ‘‘just had a feeling’’. ‘‘I believe in spirituality and all that and I think the kind of connection Carol and I had was very strong. There was some kind of spiritual communication ... that was occurring to me subliminally to go there.’’
Mr Wood told 60 Minutes: It was nonsense to say he had looked off the top of The Gap and seen Ms Byrne’s legs on the rocks below.
Fact: As recorded in the Court of Criminal Appeal judgment, Mr Wood told a number of people he could see Ms Byrne’s legs when he went to The Gap on the day of her death. Those people included Ms Byrne’s brother Peter, Rose Bay police and Police Rescue Squad officers at the scene. Two friends of Mr Wood and Ms Byrne also gave evidence at his trial of conversations with him after Ms Byrne’s death and about him being able to see her from the top of the cliff. One friend told police: ‘‘He told us he saw her ankle from the spot that he was, that he could see her shoe, her ankle skin and some portion of the lower leg.’’
Mr Wood on 60 Minutes: Cried when he said he had been allowed to hold Ms Byrne’s hand at the morgue.
Fact: He did not mention he had asked morgue attendant to see her "tits". At Mr Wood’s committal hearing, morgue attendant Kenneth Nichols recalled a man he believed to be Mr Wood arriving on the day Ms Byrne’s body was admitted and asking to view his girlfriend. ‘‘(Wood) said, ‘Do you mind if I look at her tits?’,’’ Mr Nichols told police. ‘‘I have never had anyone ask me something as strange as this in 15 years in the funeral industry.’’ Mr Nichols said the request was made in the same way as someone asks a stranger for the time. ‘‘It was the weirdest thing I have ever seen,’’ he said.
Mr Wood told 60 Minutes: That reporter Paul Barry had told him after an interview on current affairs program Witness in 1998 that he thought Mr Wood had ‘‘not done it’’.
Fact: Barry said yesterday: ‘‘I said ‘I find it pretty hard to believe you did it ... but I don’t know, I’m like the coroner’. I absolutely did not say, ‘no I think you are innocent’ - absolutely totally 100 per cent never said such a thing and never believed it either.’’
