Former RAAF pilot to stand trial accused of staging wife’s death as lawnmower accident

Crawford’s attorney, Saul Holt KC, asked Roberts how officers gained access to Crawford’s phone at the scene.

Roberts said he was shown text messages among the Crawfords’ phones.

Crawford was considered a witness at the time of the murder; Roberts told the court he could not determine whether other people were in the house during the night, and Crawford said he slept for a while.

Holt asked Roberts if he remembered how Crawford expressed concerns to him about his wife’s death being reported as suspicious in the media.

“Do you remember assuring him that there was in fact no suspect and that the media was just doing what the media did rather than anything else?” he asked.

The court also heard evidence from a member of the Queensland Police Service’s electronic evidence unit who evaluated Crawford’s phone.

As part of his analysis, he told the court that login data from the phone could only be created through manual use of the device.

Crown prosecutor Chris Cook told the court no objection was made that Crawford’s phone was accessed multiple times between midnight and 4am. Over Holt’s objection, Cook abandoned the questioning.

The court panel yesterday, Dr. He heard evidence from Andrzej Kedziora and told the court that Ms Crawford had suffered multiple injuries, including fractures to her head, neck, jaw and ribs.

Kedziora was questioned about the various scenarios he considered when analyzing the death. He said it’s hard to completely rule out the possibilities without seeing the rebuild or looking at the mower’s parts himself. Scenarios included Ms. Crawford falling from the lawnmower over the retaining wall or allegedly drowning.

He said some of Ms. Crawford’s injuries may have been caused by a fall or the lawn mower. He also said some neck injuries can be caused by hand friction or elbow during headlocking.

“And abrasions may be caused by: [Mrs Crawford’s] the nails grip the forearm and hit the skin of the neck. “This is a possibility and I do not rule it out,” he said.

Kedziora also told the court that when the Queensland Ambulance Service arrived at around 4am they reported that Crawford’s body was cold and stiff and that he had rigor mortis in basically all muscle groups.

“So basically this means that Ms. Crawford would have been dead for some time before rigor mortis would have developed,” Kedziora said.

“If I see some bruising around my neck, that could mean it continues throughout life.”