COURT: An artist's sketch of Gerard Baden-Clay during the committal hearing in Brisbane. Source: The Courier-Mail
DAY four of Gerard Baden-Clay's committal hearing has ended and will resume at 9.30am tomorrow, when it is expected nine people will be cross-examined.
4.22pm: THE committal hearing has adjourned for the day and is like to resume at 9.30am tomorrow, when it is expected that nine people will be cross-examined.
4.11pm: Mr Davis said Ms Beckett had mixed Baden-Clay's finances together into the "one big pot".
"(It) becomes impossible to determine what the real asset and liability situation is," he said.
He said if Baden-Clay decided to walk away from the sales side of his real estate business, there would be very little impact on his finances.
Mr Davis also asked how Ms Beckett could determine that cash handed over to Baden-Clay by family members was a loan.
She said his parents Nigel and Elaine had kept records of money they had leant him, including a $38,000 loan and another for $20,000 from his brother Adam.
EVIDENCE: Toni McHugh had an affair with Gerard Baden-Clay. Picture: File
"The truth is he is not insolvent," Mr Davis said.
"His asset and liabilities statement ... shows equity.
"And if you look at the period form the flood to the time of Allison Baden-Clay's demise, the income has actually increased on both sides of the business."
4.01pm: Mr Davis said Ms Beckett had not "bothered" to look at the income coming into the real estate business because she had not factored in commissions from property sales that were yet to settle.
"I suggest to you that if you were doing this analysis properly, you would look not just at the MYOB records ... but you would look also at the sales," he said.
"That would be proper accounting practise, wouldn't it?"
WITNESS: Dr Margaret Stark said it was her opinion the deep gouges on Gerard Baden-Clay's face were caused by fingernails.
He said it was not true to say business had been "declining" for Baden-Clay since the January 2011 floods.
"Presumably there's nothing untoward about a real estate business fluctuating from month to month," he said.
But Ms Beckett said it was accurate. She said family members had later injected money back into the business.
She said he also stopped paying staff in the months before Allison disappeared.
3.46pm: Mr Davis said police had little real evidence that Baden-Clay was in major financial trouble.
"He appears ... to be solvent as of April 2012," he said.
Police officer Michael Kelly at Brisbane Magistrate's Court to give evidence at the committal hearing of Gerard Baden-Clay.
"That's correct," Ms Beckett replied.
"He also appears to have a positive balance sheet, which is what we'll call his assets and liabilities."
She agreed.
Mr Davis said there was $25,000 cash sitting in two business accounts.
"You're saying, from what I can gather, that he is under some sort of financial pressure," he said.
"But you've got to look at how much cash he's got and what it costs him to run the business."
Ms Beckett said it was costing Baden-Clay $22,000 per month to run his real estate ventures.
3.33pm: THE court heard Baden-Clay owed $333,000 to friends and family - loans that he had not been asked to pay interest on.
Defence barrister Peter Davis said despite his apparent financial distress, Baden-Clay was not insolvent.
"You have spent, I suggest, a huge amount of time studying these accounts," he said.
"And the only thing you can point to by way of default is his credit card is overdue."
Ms Beckett said Baden-Clay had also set up a payment scheme with a major creditor.
"That doesn't make him insolvent," Mr Davis said.
"I didn't say he was," she replied, adding that it was another indicator he was in financial distress.
Mr Davis said Ms Beckett had made three attempts to collate Baden-Clay's complicated finances and was "still out" by more than $30,000.
3.20pm: AN investigative accountant for Queensland Police Service has told the court Gerard Baden-Clay owed $1,179,000 in debts to "third parties" and had not paid credit card bills for months prior to his wife's disappearance.
Kelly Beckett drew up a list of assets and liabilities for investigators, determining the couple had a net equity of $74,000.
But she said not all of the assets - like superannuation funds - were accessible.
Ms Beckett said he had $1,569,000 worth of liabilities, including $1,179,000 in debts to third parties.
She said Baden-Clay was supposed to be paying $6600 a month in interest on various loans but was only making $5400 in repayments.
"Of that, not being paid was the Suncorp margin loan of $500 per month and a Westpac credit car of $700 per month was not being paid.
"It was over its limit and had no payments being made in the two months before Allison disappeared.
"There were definitely indicators he was in financial distress."
3pm: The court heard scientists look at 18 DNA components and a gender component when looking for a match.
All 19 pieces of information on the swab from the car matched the sample taken from Allison.
Mr Davis asked whether the DNA from the car had been compared to that of Allison's children.
"I didn't receive any (samples) to my knowledge," Dr Reeves said.
2.45pm: A FORENSIC biologist has told the Brisbane Magistrates Court she matched Allison Baden-Clay's DNA to a sample taken from the back of the family's Holden Captiva, where blood was found.
Dr Amanda Reeves said she was given a swab from the Holden to compare with Allison's DNA.
"Yes, there was a match obtained," she said.
"The DNA profile obtained from the sample matched the reference profile of Allison Baden-Clay."
Dr Reeves also took samples from Allison's fingernails but was unable to extract any "meaningful" DNA.
1.08pm: The hearing has adjourned for lunch and is expected to resume at 2.30pm.
1.05pm: Senior Constable Kelly said he found a hair attached to the stain but it had been unable to be tested for DNA.
''The hair is no longer actively growing - it was waiting to be shed," he said.
''(It was) simply a hair that had fallen out."
Defence barrister Peter Davis asked if the Luminol test had given a "strong reaction".
''I would consider it a strong reaction, yes," the officer said.
Mr Davis asked whether old or dried blood gave a stronger reaction as it became more concentrated.
"I would have to perform specific research into that," he said.
Sen Const Kelly said he tested the whole car with Luminol and the stain reacted during the test.
He said it was not a coloured stain.
"It was just a difference in the texture of the surface," he said.
"Like if you'd poured a sticky drink or something onto the surface."
12.50pm:
The court is now hearing evidence from Senior Constable Michael Kelly, a forensic scientist.
Sen Constable Kelly examined Baden-Clay's silver Holden Captiva for the presence of blood.
He said he noticed a stain in the rear of the car in the third seating row.
The officer said once he lifted the seats, he saw the stain on a plastic trim area.
Prosecutor Danny Boyle said Sen Constable Kelly used two testing methods to see whether the stain was blood.
''The TMB test returned an instant positive reaction and the Hematrace test also returned a positive reaction,'' Sen Constable Kelly said.
The court heard there was enough of the substance that it had formed ''trickles'' of stain in the car.
12.41pm: Senior Constable Carl Streeting from the major crime scientific section has taken the stand to give evidence on tests conducted on the Baden-Clay house and their Toyota Prado for the presence of blood.
He said he used Luminol to test for the presence of blood in the car and TMB testing inside the house.
Defence barrister Peter Davis said both tests can register ''false positives''.
Sen Constable Streeting agreed.
''Anything oxidising such as rust or metal, yeast, vegetables such as cauliflower, cleaning products as well (will cause a false positive),'' he said.
The court heard a DNA test was then used to ensure a false positive had not been obtained.
12.34pm: Ms McHugh cried on the stand as she spoke about discovering she and Allison would be attending the same real estate conference on April 20.
''I was upset,'' she said.
''(I was) curious as to why he didn't tell me.
''(I said) when were you going to tell me this?
''He said 'I only just found out'.
''(I said) I feel sick.
''How can you put us in this situation?
''(I said) I think you should tell Allison.
''I said that she deserved to know.
''He didn't say anything.
''I got angry again. I couldn't make sense of why Allison was going to this property management conference...why we would be put in that situation and why he would invest in two staff going to the conference when the business was struggling.
''I asked him for confirmation on what was going on.
''Was his wife going to continue working in the business after he left her?
''He said no he was going to sell the business.''
Ms McHugh said she asked Gerard whether he would sell the business first or leave his wife.
She told the court he responded by saying ''leave my wife''.
''(I asked) does Allison know about this?,'' Ms McHugh said.
''(He said) no she doesn't.''
12.24pm: Mistress Toni McHugh said police revealed to her that Baden-Clay had been having affairs with two other women.
''You weren't aware of (the other women) until police told you?,'' Mr Davis asked.
''I certainly wasn't aware of (one of the women).''
Ms McHugh said she had questioned Baden-Clay about the other woman in the past but believed they were just friends.
''I wasn't aware that there was anything...I knew that they had a friendship and I believed it was a business relationship.''
Ms McHugh said they spoke on May 27 when she confronted him over the phone on what police had revealed to her.
''I recall questioning him, asking for some confirmation about whether it did happen...whether it was true,'' she said.
''I told him I'd found out.''
Mr Davis asked whether she revealed to Baden-Clay that it was the police who had told her.
''I may have. I can't specifically recall,'' she said.
''He said he didn't want to talk about it over the phone - he wanted to talk to me about it in person.
''I kept pressing for some response.
''He reminded me of him saying to me once that there was something that he needed...we'd be needing to sit down and talk about things frankly and honestly and he referred to that being one of the things that we would be discussing.''
She said he promised to call her the following day but didn't.
12pm: Ms McHugh said she spoke to Baden-Clay twice on the day she gave her first statement - the day following Allison's disappearance.
She said Baden-Clay told her to tell the truth about their relationship.
Ms McHugh told the court he called her several times from pay phones after his wife disappeared.
Defence barrister Peter Davis asked how she knew Baden-Clay was calling from a pay phone.
''He told me or I could hear the noise in the background,'' she said.
''He told me or I asked him 'where are you ringing from?' and the response was 'a pay phone'.
''The first conversation was in regards to how he and the girls were managing.
''Whether it was that conversation or another one - but one time he did tell me that he was calling to tell me that he did not know what had gone wrong that he wasn't responsible for anything that had happened.''
Ms McHugh said it later ''became apparent'' he was using his own mobile again.
11.35am: Ms McHugh told the court Baden-Clay made various promises to her about leaving his wife ''by the end of the year''.
''The whole circumstances around our relationship were constantly sad,'' she said.
''(He said) he would be out of his relationship by the end of the year.
''I don't know how many times he said that.
''He would remind me.
''I doubted our relationship, as far as being a normal relationship.
''I was constantly asking him, trying to get indicators of, I guess, him progressing towards leaving.''
She said their conversation in December at the Kelvin Grove coffee shop where he promised to come to her ''unconditionally'' was still non-committal as far as giving an actual date.
''It wasn't as if he came to the coffee shop and sat down and said 'I am going to leave my wife tomorrow','' Ms McHugh said.
''It wasn't that meeting - it wasn't like that.
''I had never pressed for a date initially.
''Ending that relationship in September was horrid and I wasn't going to set myself up for the same experience.
''So I was far more determined to set some framework around what he was actually doing.''
She said Baden-Clay had told her he could not afford to leave his wife.
''(He said he) wasn't in a financial position to be able to afford a divorce.''
11.30am: Ms McHugh said Baden-Clay told her his wife was angry and no longer trusted him after finding out about the affair on September 14, 2011.
''We talked about the restrictions that Allison placed on him...being home at a certain time, making sure that she was able to read any text messages.
''(He said) that she didn't trust him. She was angry and didn't trust him.
''I was made aware of the 15 minute counselling sessions - that it was a requirement of the counselling that they speak about the affair, the relationship, for 15 minutes each night and I was not told anything about the content of those discussions.''
11.17am: The court heard that Baden-Clay and Ms McHugh had sex twice between February and April, 2012 - after they had agreed their relationship was not going to be of a sexual nature.
''It was limited very limited,'' she said.
''Two occasions that I recall.
''I don't know how to describe something like that.
''I loved him.''
Mr Davis asked whether Ms McHugh remembered the circumstances leading up to them rekindling their sexual affair.
''I'm sorry, I can't,'' a shaken Ms McHugh replied.
Mr Davis asked Ms McHugh the last time she saw Baden-Clay in person.
''The last time I saw Gerard was in a block of rental units,'' she said.
''It would have been maybe a week before he was arrested.''
''When was the last time you saw him prior to Allison going missing?'' Mr Davis asked.
''My memory senses that it was about three weeks prior to Allison going missing,'' Ms McHugh answered.
''I was on my way to a job interview and I just asked whether he had time to meet me for a coffee.
''We would meet at a coffee shop in Kelvin Grove.''
11.08am: An emotional Ms McHugh said she tried to call Baden-Clay the day after he broke things off in September 2011.
''I called him to try and understand what had happened,'' she said.
''I wanted to discuss it.''
''Were you interested at that stage in continuing the relationship?'' Mr Davis asked.
''Yes,'' she said.
''I was angry and hurt.
''I wanted an explanation...I wanted some clarity as to how he'd come to that decision.
''He said very little.''
Ms McHugh told the court she tried to contact him on a number of occasions after that.
She said he called her on one occasion after breaking things off - but to discuss real estate matters.
''It was a work-based call,'' Ms McHugh said.
In December, he called again.
''(It was) him wanting to give me some indication that he didn't plan to be in a marriage indefinitely - that he still had feelings for me,'' Ms McHugh said.
''He told me he was one day going to come to me unconditionally.''
But in the same conversation Baden-Clay told her he was going to maintain his marriage to Allison in the short-term.
11am: Ms McHugh said she called Baden-Clay from a real estate conference Allison was supposed to have attended on the day she was reported missing.
''I rang Gerard realising that Allison hadn't come to the conference,'' Ms McHugh told the court.
''As soon as I said hello he sounded very distressed.
''He said Allison has gone missing and I said 'what do you mean?'.
''I was shocked that she'd gone missing.
''I said 'What...what's happened? What's triggered this?'.''
An emotional Ms McHugh told how she asked Baden-Clay whether he had fought with his wife the night before.
She told the court he'd said ''no, we didn't argue''.
''(I said) 'can you think of anything that's triggered her going away?' and he said 'no'.
''He was not in a position to be talking.
''I told him I loved him.''
Ms McHugh said the conversation ended with Baden-Clay telling her they would not be able to talk for a while and that they should ''lay low''.
10.50am: Ms McHugh said she never had conversations with Allison over the phone and Allison never called her after finding out about the affair.
''Are you sure about that?'' Mr Davis asked.
''Positive,'' she replied.
The court heard Baden-Clay broke off the relationship with Ms McHugh on September 14, 2011.
''So basically it was him telling you that it's off,'' Mr Davis said.
''Correct,'' she replied.
On the same day, the court heard, Ms McHugh tendered her resignation.
''It was an attempt (to end the relationship) - it wasn't successful,'' she said.
''At that stage, business partners were involved.''
The court heard earlier, Ms McHugh had been confronted by one of Baden-Clay's business partners about whether there was an affair.
''Jocelyn (Frost) confronted me with...she'd noticed it was a bit different I guess,'' she said.
''She just inferred, was there something more than a relationship between colleagues.
''I was actually quite shocked and didn't confirm anything for quite some time.''
Eventually they came clean to the business partners, she told the court.
''Gerard and I discussed the fact that we were working closely with people that we trusted and respected and we decided that they were going to be suspicious and it was best to be up front with them,'' she said.
After calling the relationship off, Ms McHugh told the court she met Baden-Clay in a coffee shop in late 2011 where they rekindled the affair.
Ms McHugh became emotional as she described a conversation at a coffee shop where Baden-Clay talked about their future together.
''There was always a suggestion, a promise that there would be a time when things would be normal,'' she said.
10.33am: The court heard Ms McHugh was shown a drawing of the floor plan of her unit by detectives during the investigation.
She identified the handwriting as Baden-Clay's.
Questioning her on the first statement, defence barrister Peter Davis said Ms McHugh started working with Baden-Clay at Century 21 Westside in April, 2007.
He asked why she had applied for a job with Century 21.
''I'd known Gerard as my real estate agent previously,'' she said.
''I'd spoken to his mother...so I felt that there was a familiarity and I was comfortable with the way they conducted their business.''
She said they started their sexual relationship in August, 2008.
''To be honest I link it to the properties I was selling at the time,'' she said.
''Over the years we did recognise August as being a starting date.''
The court heard Ms McHugh's relationship with her husband - the father of her two children - ended during the affair.
''We had had a difficult relationship for many years,'' she said.
''My decision to end the relationship with Rob was based on still having a respect for him...not being able to remain in an unfaithful relationship.
''It was nothing Gerard suggested at all.''
10.24am: Gerard Baden-Clay's mistress Toni McHugh has taken the stand to give evidence at his committal.
Ms McHugh provided police with five separate statements throughout the course of their investigation.
Wearing a black suit, Ms McHugh, a property manager, took several minutes to appear after she was called.
The court heard Ms McHugh gave her first statement to police on April 21, 2012 - the day after her lover reported his wife missing.
10.15am: Mr Davis pointed out that Dr Stark was careful in her report not to say the scratches ''are from fingernails'', only that they are consistent with nail gouges.
''They don't look like razor blade injuries in my experience just because of the width of them,'' she said.
Dr Stark said it very difficult to be accurate when determining the age of different injuries from photographs alone.
''It's very difficult to be accurate,'' she said.
''It's much better to see the injury and give comment on the actual injury, and then the photograph acts as a memoir.''
She said she believed the superficial injuries were fresher because of their red colour.
''They just look slightly different and it might be possible that the redder injuries were caused at a different time,'' Dr Stark said.
''There is a suggestion that they are caused at different times in regards to the reddening (of the superficial scratches) as opposed to the yellowing (of the deeper gouges).
Scratches on Baden-Clay's neck, which bruised the skin, could have been caused by someone scratching him through clothing, she said.
Dr Stark said she had seen cases where someone had been ''grabbed by their clothing" resulting in the kind of scratch and ''pin-point bruising like you see here'' on Baden-Clay's neck.
She said she did not believe a large patch of graze-like scratches on Baden-Clay's chest was self-inflicted.
''That would hurt quite a lot to do,'' she said.
''I've never seen any self-inflicted injuries like that.
''It's very unusual to get bruising...from self-inflicted injury.
''You are more likely to get abrasions and incised wounds from self inflicted injuries.
''It looks more to me like pressure through clothing.''
A similar injury near Baden-Clay's shoulder could also have been caused from pressure through clothing.
Dr Stark said a backpack pulled hard against the shoulder could cause such an injury.
9.57am: The first witness to give evidence, Dr Margaret Stark, has told the Brisbane Magistrates Court she studied images of injuries on Gerard Baden-Clay's body at the request of investigating detectives.
Dr Stark, the director of the NSW Police clinical forensic medicine unit, said it was her opinion that the deep gouges on Gerard Baden-Clay's face were caused by fingernails.
She said superficial scratches next to the gouges were caused later - likely by a razor blade.
''(Your report said) the more trivial injuries are fairly characteristic of razor cuts and appear more recent,'' prosecutor Danny Boyle said.
He asked why Dr Stark believed the larger scratches were caused by fingernails.
''The abrasions are wider and not equal, sort of irregular,'' she said.
''That is suggestive that they could have been caused by fingernails.''
Dr Stark told the court Allison's fingernails were long enough to have caused such damage.
Defence barrister Peter Davis asked why one of the ''fingernail scratches'' moved away at a different angle to the others.
Dr Stark explained it was because neither the person scratching or the person being scratched would have remained perfectly still.
''It's a dynamic situation,'' she said.
''Is there any science to this, or is it just speculation?'' Mr Davis asked.
''I don't think there are any published papers quoting the dynamics of fingernails...it's almost just common sense,'' she replied.
Mr Davis said Dr Stark could not give expert evidence on ''common sense''.
''I suppose it's years of experience examining (scratch injuries),'' she said.
9am: Gerard Baden-Clay's mistress Toni McHugh will take the stand this morning on day four of a hearing that will determine whether he will stand trial for the murder of his wife.
Baden-Clay, 42, is charged with murdering his wife Allison and interfering with her corpse.
Allison was reported missing by her husband on April 20, 2012.
He told police he had left her watching The Footy Show when he went to bed the night before and woke up to find her gone.
Her body was found 10 days later on the banks of the Kholo Creek.
Chief Magistrate Brendan Butler will decide whether there is enough evidence to send the real estate agent to trial at the end of the six-day committal hearing.
Today's hearing will start at 9.30am.
