Expert says cuts on Gerard Baden-Clay's face are not from shaving.

It is a trial filled with evidence of long-term affairs and mistresses.

Of a family in scorching debt and a couple in turmoil.

And evidence over a cut on the face of the accused is now making worldwide headlines.

Gerard Baden-Clay stands accused of murdering his wife Allison on April 19, 2012.

The mother of three’s body was found by a kayaker on the banks of the Kholo Creek in Brisbane’s western suburbs on April 30, 2012, 10 days after he reported her missing to police.

Baden-Clay has always maintained his innocence, pleading not guilty in court. He claims that Alison went out for walk that morning and never returned.

Mr Baden-Clay’s defence counsel has pointed to Mrs Baden-Clay’s history with depression to suggest she was suicidal. The prosecution maintains it was Gerard’s long running affair and financial debts that drove him to allegedly murder his wife.

One of the key features of the prosecution’s case is several red cuts on Gerard Baden-Clay’s face that he told police were shaving cuts.

Shaving cuts

The court heard evidence yesterday that these cuts on Baden-Clay’s face were more likely to be fingernail scratches, allegedly from his murdered wife.

Yesterday a tape was played to the court:

“I cut myself shaving this morning and everybody says it looks suspicious,” he told the detectives during an interview.

One replied: “It does.”

The Australian reports that forensic physician Margaret Stark, an expert with the NSW Police Force gave evidence yesterday in court that the cuts were more likely to be fingernail scratches.

“These particular injuries are typical of fingernail scratches,” Dr Stark told the court. “It’s not diagnostic, it’s not 100 per cent … but this is a very typical presentation of being scratched with fingernails.”

Dr Stark agreed she could not be certain what caused Mr Baden-Clay’s injuries as she did not examine them in person

“They’re just not typical of injury with a razor blade,” Dr Stark told the court via video link.

Evidence was also presented over marks noted on Mr Baden-Clay’s body in the aftermath of his wife’s disappearance. He told police that he had a cut on his hand, sustained while changing a light fitting at a friend’s home. Police photographs of Gerard’s bare chest were also presented, showing unexplained marks on the left-hand side of his neck and one on either side of his chest.

Blood in the car

Senior Constable Carl Streeting told the court that one bloodstain was found in the boot of Mrs Baden-Clay’s silver Holden Captiva.

The Brisbane Tines reports that the officer from the Scientific Section of the Major Crime Unit described the stain as a “transfer blood stain”, which appeared to be “dripping down” the boot door.

A photograph showing the stain was tendered to the court, with Senior Constable Streeting explaining that a “transfer stain” occurred when an “object or person” came into contact with a surface.

He said he believed the blood had dripped down the boot door.

Affairs

Over the past week the court heard evidence of his long-term affair with an ex-worker Toni McHugh. Ms McHugh told the Court her lover promised he would sell his Brisbane real estate agency and leave his wife for her.

Ms McHugh and Mr Baden-Clay began their affair in August 2008.

She described it to the court as “rollercoaster … up and down all the time, year after year”, punctuated by broken promises that he would leave his wife. “(Gerard) was very adamant he didn’t have a relationship with his wife; that he didn’t love his wife,”

Ms McHugh told the jury of the “gorgeous man” who called her ‘GG’ for “gorgeous girl”.

The court heard that in September or October 2011, Ms Baden-Clay discovered her husband’s infidelity through gossip at the school canteen and issued him with an ultimatum.

He then ended his relationship with Toni McHugh and sacked her. Ms McHugh said by December 201 Mr Baden-Clay rekindled the affair. This week the court had heard Toni McHugh tell of how she then found out he had had numerous affairs with other women.

She told the Queensland Supreme Court that after Mrs Baden-Clay’s body had been found, investigating police told her Gerard Baden-Clay had sexual relationships with at least two other women during their affair.

Police recording

Yesterday the court heard a recording of a police interview where Baden-Clay discussed the conversation they had the night before she went missing.

Mr Baden-Clay told the detective he and his wife had discussed his long-running affair with a former employee the night before.

From The Brisbane Times:

Mr Baden-Clay’s voice fell to a whisper and was barely audible on the tape as he admitted his wife had asked: “Where did you have sex?”

Yet, Mr Baden-Clay denied having an argument with his wife, saying their conversation about the affair was limited to 15 minutes under the instructions of a marriage counsellor.

He said they then washed their daughters’ school lunchboxes, before discussing plans for the following day.”

He told detectives of the marriage counselling the couple were undertaking and of her desire to lose weight.

Triple O Call

The court also heard a recording of Baden-Clay’s triple-zero call in which he reported his wife missing. ” I just want her found” he is heard to say.

‘My wife isn’t home and I don’t know where she is,’ he told the operator.

He said he last saw her when she went to bed, and he was now driving the streets looking for her.

‘I got up this morning and she wasn’t there. That’s not unusual, she often goes for a walk in the morning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfbK0A1-Lg0

The last two days of evidence has been the first time the court had heard from the man accused of murdering his wife.

The case continues.