Gerard Baden-Clay's murder conviction reinstated for the death of his wife Allison.

Four years after his wife Allison’s death, the High Court of Australia has decided to reinstate Gerard Baden-Clay’s murder conviction.

Baden-Clay was originally found guilty of murder by a jury in 2014 after Allison was killed in 2012.

But in December last year, the conviction was downgraded to manslaughter by the Court of Appeal after his lawyers argued the killing of his wife may have been unintentional and covered up the crime through “panic”.

Father-of-three Bayden-Clay reported his wife missing from their Brisbane home on the morning of 20 April 2012, lying to police about scratches on his face and claiming he was innocent until her body was eventually found on the banks of a nearby creek 10 days later.

He was charged with murder and interfering with a corpse two months later in June 2012 and during his committal hearing in March 2013, it was revealed Baden-Clay had been having an affair and was financially struggling at the time of his wife’s death. The prosecution argued his motive for his wife’s murder was to clear his debts from her life insurance and to avoid a costly divorce.

Just five weeks after the trial began in June 2013, the jury found Bayden-Clay guilty of murder. Allison’s family could be heard yelling “yes!” from their seats.

Today’s decision by the High Court means Bayden-Clay can no longer appeal the sentence as he has exhausted all legal avenues.