GBC Trial General Discussion Thread #1

[Champagne4lulu]

and its after this exchange of info from the QPS to Toni that she makes her statement# 5, which hasn't been made public yet... I expect it's the guts of her Statement #5 which will be a large part of her testimony as the Crown Prosecution witness...

and ... not to be forgotten, she has had to go Cold Turkey on Gerard since his arrest... part of being a Crown Witness is the undertaking to have absolutely no contact with the accused, his family, his friends, his contacts, from that moment on.. Has Toni been able to do it? I do wonder...

Why have they not made that public I wonder? And what else haven't we seen?

 

[they'll get you]

Is there a coffee shop in kenmore that would be open at that time on a Wednesday night? They can't have gone much further for a half hour coffee, or the half hour would have been taken up driving. I know it mightn't be relevant to the scenario at all, but the whole coffee story still seems strange to me, particularly with the phone calls that occurred.

There is something not sitting right with the 18th April.
Was nig asked specifically about that night of the 18th or did he throw it in like he did with Allison's depression to lead the jurors thoughts.
Oh he's good in his own lunchtime.......we know it because we can throw it around but DOES JURY REALISE IT.

It's a verrrry close family eh?

 

[LollyPop]

Is there a coffee shop in kenmore that would be open at that time on a Wednesday night? They can't have gone much further for a half hour coffee, or the half hour would have been taken up driving. I know it mightn't be relevant to the scenario at all, but the whole coffee story still seems strange to me, particularly with the phone calls that occurred.

There used to be a Coffee Club at Kenmore that was also open at dinner. I assume it's still there But I guess some of the restaurants in Kenmore would also serve coffee/dessert.

But I agree that it all sounds a bit strange.

 

[Champagne4lulu]

Mcdonalds/mc cafe?

 

[ollijack]

Catching up....

Heard this song today, and the tears just rolled.. For Allison, and all of you.

Sarah McLachlan - In the arms of an angel - YouTube

Thankyou, that is stunning and I too cried and cried. This trial, while I have been so looking foreword to it has become shocking to me. I think it was easy to 'forget' what really happened. A brutal murder. I do not know how her loved ones are coping.

Poor darling woman, I hope everyone who was involved in this pays.

 

[ollijack]

I remember Mr and Mrs Dickie, Allison's elderly parents, driving to Brisbane from the Gold Coast on daily basis. Although they were unimaginably burdened with fear and anxiety for not only their daughter but also their grandchildren and, I'm sure, Allison's husband, they nevertheless worked to provide food and drink for all the people who'd turned out to search for Allison. Then, at the end of those very long, dark days, they drove home again. Day after day. I'm filled with admiration for them. Under the same circumstances, I doubt I could function at all

In comparison, Allison's husband's family, who lived quite near by, apparently declined to attend the search headquarters in any capacity at all

Reportedly, Allison's father in law still hasn't provided police with a formal statement. And it's been said here quite recently that Allison's husband hasn't provided one either, whether or not that's accurate I don't know

I don't profess to be anywhere near as close to my brother as OW apparently is to hers, but if I were, and if I were prepared to confront the media in defiance as OW has, I'm confident I'd be saying a lot more to my brother, such as, ' I will not support any attempts you make to seize property rightly belonging to your dead wife. How could you with such indecent haste seek to gain insurance money from your wife's death? That money should rightly go to her daughters '.

I'd also be tackling my brother about his various versions of events. I'd say to him, ' I want the truth. You've said Allison walked in this and that direction. You've said she went walking at night and you've also said she went walking in the early morning. You've claimed you were told not to attend the searches, yet the police officer you claimed gave you those instructions has apparently flatly contradicted you'

And I'd tell him in no uncertain terms that he'd placed our family, our parents, under intolerable stress. He'd shamed us via his extramarital affairs and by his betrayal of his wife - and by extension, his little daughters

If my brother's solicitors instructed me not to worsen my brother's case by mouthing off at the media, I'd hold my tongue. I'd especially hold my tongue if doubts about my brother's role in the death of his wife were beginning to seep through my armour of denial. I'd prevail upon my parents to make a clean breast of it, because I'd know that was the right thing to do, right for all concerned

Yes, I might feel humiliated by the fact my brother had been publicly charged with the murder of his wife. Yes, it would impact a great deal upon my own life, upon the life of my own husband and children. I'd know it was impacting also on my other brother and his family. I might feel sorry for myself. I would wish it would all just go away. I'd become angry that this had happened to my family. I might be angry at the media for being there to record and report it. But then I'd think of Allison's children whose mother was gone from them forever. I'd look at the faces of Allison's parents and siblings and realize they were going through as much if not more grief and pain than I. And hopefully I'd feel humbled to the point I'd accept we don't always get what we want. What's done can't be undone. The legal process must proceed. And I must prepare myself for the worst scenario

Most of all, I hope I'd have the humanity to realise before very long at all, that the media didn't murder Allison. Those at the court didn't murder Allison. Someone murdered Allison and the only person accused of her murder is my brother -- and just because he's MY brother does not make him special, just as it doesn't mean he's innocent

My friends might feel sorry for me. Being the sister of an accused murderer isn't nice. But then neither is being murdered. Neither is having your daughter or mother or sister murdered. And if I had an ounce of genuine spirituality in me, my only prayer would be for justice to be done

:loveyou:
that is a brilliant post.........thankyou so much....

 

[Bobbie Elliott]

I hope so, Bobbie. Reading and hearing the witness statements in the last week have made me feel rather confused. None seemed to be very strong on their own. I hope that all circumstantial evidence taken together will in the end paint a convincing picture, without reasonable doubt, of what really happened that night.

Thanks Whirligig, but I have even higher hopes. I think that, as well as the "explainable" circumstantial evidence, there is going to be some really damming, very-hard-to-explain-away circumstantial evidence. Fingers crossed.

 

[Mumma Bear]

This blonde hair in the blood from the car is the smoking gun IMHO. What are the chances?! With foils only about a quarter of the hair gets bleached - yet one of those happened to get left behind. I'm guessing the entire hair was found as they have DNA-matched it to Allison, so it should also be evident how recent the bleach application was.

It's just one hair BUT who knows what's in the vacuum bag - more hairs would be even better! Not only would that narrow it right down to a place and timeframe that leads to only one conclusion, it also shows an attempt to conceal evidence - showing he wasn't sleep-walking or some other silly excuse.

And Hello All! Long time lurker, first time poster. I live in the inner West of Brisbane, have two girls (and a kind, non-murdering-type husband!) and have a couple of degrees of separation to the Dickie Family - not unusual in Brissie! So I've felt a connection to her from day 1 and have followed websleuths with keen interest. May justice prevail!

 

[Bobbie Elliott]

Olivia , apparently, was in Military Security.. so it beats me how she remained, (or, in my opinion pretended to remain ) in the dark about Gerards Toni nonsense, and the financials of the business...

She is living in a small house, after Alisons disappearance.. her 3 kids, Gerards 3 girls, Nige and Elaine. that's 9 people, and Gerard is ringing Toni, and NIGE is ringing Toni (according to police statements, found on a covert phone tap) keeping up the contact for Gerard, and Olivia is oblivious to all this carry-on??

What kind of Military Training in Security is that a demonstration of?? a Banana kind of military training , that's what..

I don't think she will be hard to crack at all, mainly because she isn't functioning on all spark plugs.. The Supreme Court of Qld is a far cry from a bunch of women trying how to learn 'living authentically in Christ..' .. either Olivia has to give a public demo of that, or redefine the theory..

From memory, it was Olivia who first floated publicly the story of Alisons depression.. said with a stern frown , as if Alison was a raving howling maniac, hidden down the shed somewhere, .. but Alison wasn't.. she was working in an industry far tougher that being a pastors wife in FNQ, bringing up her girls, maintaining her relationships with friends and family, with staff, with teachers, with other parents.. and doing all this with a raving howling unfaithful lying defrauding husband who couldn't add 2 and 2 together fiscally, couldn't pay a bill, wouldn't pay a bill, and whose business partners had had a gutful and walked out without their monies owed....

Bravo Trooper!!

Said as only you can say it!!

 

[redlightthroughpaper]

From someone who dyes her hair regularly, I get full colour done every 6wks, then every other visit, some foils too. The complicating factor with the evidence on the hair will come down to how the hair is done. I don't get semis, but that I would think would cover all hair root to tip, and it's obviously not permanent so starts to wash out. Foils however if they are done like mine are scattered. Not every strand, and even a section that is foiled, receives the bleach - it's almost like a weave pattern they use, where some strands are bleached and some aren't.

So, if the strand has the semi, it's certain to be after the 14th. It's also possible to be the 19th, which I'm sure they could look at for the shampoo she used in the salon, even compare to other like hair strands from the deceased. If it doesn't have semi, it's before the 14th. If it is bleached, 19th. Done

The foils were blonde and the semi was red (from the hairdresser statement).
A few weeks before the red semi, ABC had dark blondey coloured hair that looked like it had some lighter streaks or something (I am not a hairdresser and I don't dye my hair, so I am not up to speed with what things are called - but her hair looked sort of natural reddish blonde if that makes sense? It didn't look like a flat, dyed-all-the-same colour).
The hair found was blonde. So it must be either a hair than has been foiled on the 19th or a hair from before the red semi (so prior to the 14th).
If my facebook friend is right and the blonde hair has red semi near the root, then we can place it at the 19th. But if there is grey at the root, then we can place it prior to the 14th. If the hair is blonde all the way to the root, then unless there is a test available that can tell whether the blonde has been very recently done or not, then there may be no way to tell if it was done on the 19th or when she had her hair done 8 or so weeks previously when Sparky was new.
The reason I am so interested in the hair is because it was attached to the blood, so if the hair is found to be from after the hairdressing appt on 19th, then it would follow that the blood would most likely been from then too (and vice versa).
The blood in the car and the facial scratches are (for me) the two things that seem most suss.

 

[redlightthroughpaper]

There used to be a Coffee Club at Kenmore that was also open at dinner. I assume it's still there But I guess some of the restaurants in Kenmore would also serve coffee/dessert.

But I agree that it all sounds a bit strange.

The Coffee Club closed yonks ago (there is a Mexican restaurant there now). But there are lots of places to grab a coffee in Kenmore.

 

[ollijack]

Most of those geolocation apps on an iPhone are accurate to within a few metres. On my iPhone, it can not only place me in the house (with no satellite view access), but mostly put me in the right room too. It's very impressive - it uses not only satellite GPS (which obviously doesn't work indoors) but also triangulation from cellphone towers and WiFi access points. If Allison's phone was outdoors, eg in the scrub somewhere, it would be accurate to within 2 or 3 metres.

They had police and SES doing a fingertip crawl search, plus they had a helicopter with a "pinger" detector to locate the phone as they kept trying to call it. They were also listening for the sound of the phone ringing as it was being called. I would think that the entire area within 100m in all directions of the back garden of 61 Boscombe Rd (which is over the back fence from the BC house) was searched with a fine toothcomb - and as far as we know, Allison's phone was never found.

I think the prosecution mentioned this in the opening statement.

So, if they couldn't find the phone, yet the app showed it as being there, it was either:

1.very well hidden

2.removed before or during the search

3.the app was wrong (highly unlikely)

Or they DID find it - and have been keeping it up their sleeve.

Doc, this is really the biggest mystery of the whole case.
I just do not understand how, if it came 'up' it wasn't found.
Would they be allowed to keep it 'secret' if it was found?
thankyou for the post it was really good.........

 

[redlightthroughpaper]

This blonde hair in the blood from the car is the smoking gun IMHO. What are the chances?! With foils only about a quarter of the hair gets bleached - yet one of those happened to get left behind. I'm guessing the entire hair was found as they have DNA-matched it to Allison, so it should also be evident how recent the bleach application was.

It's just one hair BUT who knows what's in the vacuum bag - more hairs would be even better! Not only would that narrow it right down to a place and timeframe that leads to only one conclusion, it also shows an attempt to conceal evidence - showing he wasn't sleep-walking or some other silly excuse.

And Hello All! Long time lurker, first time poster. I live in the inner West of Brisbane, have two girls (and a kind, non-murdering-type husband!) and have a couple of degrees of separation to the Dickie Family - not unusual in Brissie! So I've felt a connection to her from day 1 and have followed websleuths with keen interest. May justice prevail!

Hi Mumma Bear. Yes, I agree the hair seems to be a smoking gun at this stage - and I hadn't even thought about the possibility of there being more in the vaccuum bag! :bang:

 

[Jaguar88]

Yes, the "self incrimination" search was never explained was it....or was it explained as connecting with the "taking the fifth" search...

I vaguely recall from either evidence at the bail/committal hearing or discussion here on WS that the self incrimination-taking the fifth search on the morning of the 20th was explained away as a bookmarked search on GBC's iPhone. That is, the the search was made on the 18th when the subject was raised while watching 'The Good Wife' and the page was still open in the browser, so that when the browser was next opened looking for the police number on the morning of 20th it automatically went to the bookmarked webpage.
Off topic, but whenever I hear anything about The Good Wife in connection with this case I think of a line from a Big Bang episode - 'Something is very wrong, the Good Wife is crying'

 

[Whirligig]

I seem to recall from the bail documents that the Figtree Pocket tower registered an internet connection to Allison's phone at 6.31am on 19 April. How does this gel with the find my phone app on GBC's phone locating it at 61 Boscombe Rd Brookfield later the same morning? Could this indicate that the phone was taken for a drive before being discarded? Apologies if this was discussed before.

 

[Bobbie Elliott]

Yes. And I don't doubt most who've discussed and observed this case have felt, at one time or another, compassion for all those associated with Allison's murder. It would be very difficult to deal with and to grasp. The ripples spread wide. And there are no winners

Sorry Laser, but I must be a hard bi*ch. I haven't felt compassion for TM or most of the BCs.

 

[Mountain Misst]

Children said daddy went downstairs to iron a shirt. I thought maybe the laundry was downstairs-no it isn't. It's off the kitchen behind the big sliding doors because from the outside the is a door and a small window. Yep that's the laundry/utilities room.
Why was he going downstairs?

BBM - an opportunity for a suggestion of 'Premeditation' I reckon TGY. Upping the roller door so he wouldn't disturb anyone when he drove out later to allegedly dispose of a body. All this, while Allison was watching tellie...

 

[ollijack]

Ali can GBC be 'made' to go on the stand....I don't understand why he cant be
forced....
thankyou....

 

[redlightthroughpaper]

I seem to recall from the bail documents that the Figtree Pocket tower registered an internet connection to Allison's phone at 6.31am on 19 April. How does this gel with the find my phone app on GBC's phone locating it at 61 Boscombe Rd Brookfield later the same morning? Could this indicate that the phone was taken for a drive before being discarded? Apologies if this was discussed before.

Yes Whirligig, it was the morning of the 20th that the phone records show ABC's phone making an internet connection to the FTP tower. It doesn't seem to gel at all with the find my phone app locating at 61 Boscombe later that day. In fact, we have discussed it at length in here and it doesn't seem to gel with much at all imo, including GBC's phone records. I'm hoping we will find out more about this during the trial.

 

[ollijack]

I finally saw the video and the photos of Allison's home, it was beautiful
so homely and full of love, the little girls must have been so happy.
She was a lovely mummy.