Brisbane Magistrates Court has been told Gerard Baden-Clay's motivation to kill his wife was money.
DAY one of the six-day hearing to determine whether Gerard Baden-Clay will face trial for the murder of his wife has been completed.
4:12pm AEST:
Forensic pathologist Dr Nathan Milne said toxicology tests showed there was an anti- anxiety medication called Sertraline in Allison's system when she died.
He said the leg was the most accurate place to take blood when determining how much of a drug somebody had in their system at the time of death.
However, because of the decomposition of the body, he could only take blood from the liver.
He said whatever the level of the anti-anxiety drug found in Allison's body, the "true level" would have been less.
"Typically, the decomposition (means that drug levels) go from high concentration to a low concentration," Dr Milne said.
"Levels increase after death due to decomposition.
"I would expect the true level (of drug) to be somewhat less than that."
He said tests on the liver tissue would generally show an even more concentrated amount.
ALLISON Baden-Clay: the committal hearing of her husband Gerard starts Monday, March 11.
Mr Davis said there was a potentially lethal amount of anti-anxiety medication in the liver tissue.
"I don't think any comment about those levels can really be made," Dr Milne said.
"I don't think there's enough information to make any interpretation."
Dr Milne reiterated that he was unable to determine a cause of death.
4:01pm AEST:
Forensic pathologist Dr Nathan Milne told the court that as he removed the jumper Allison was wearing, a fingertip from a glove fell out.
"I can't explain how it got there," he said.
"It could have been contaminated at the scene, maybe, or around the time of death, or at the time of death."
But he said as it didn't look particularly old, it was more likely it got there during the discovery of the body.
File picture: Allison Baden-Clay (left) with friend Kerry-Anne Walker, who gave evidence at the committal hearing of Gerard Baden-Clay.
Dr Milne said there were no obvious injuries to show the body had spent time in the water.
He said Allison had relatively few visible injuries but he did discover what looked like a bruise on the inside or her ribs.
"It was a relatively thin film of discolouration on the inside of the rib," Dr Milne said.
"It was most likely a bruise, but I can't be sure of that.
"It was about five centimetres or so, an oval to round shape."
He said there was no indication of drowning - but it couldn't be ruled out.
"For a body with this decomposition, even if there were classic drowning signs, I wouldn't expect to see them," Dr Milne said.
3:40pm:
THERE was "insufficient positive evidence" to show how Allison Baden-Clay had died, according to the doctor who performed the autopsy.
Dr Nathan Milne, a forensic pathologist, told the court he could not determine a cause of death.
Dr Milne examined Allison's body where it lay in the mud on the banks of the Kholo Creek on April 30, 2012, and again while carrying out the autopsy.
"There was insufficient positive evidence to determine a cause of death," he said.
He told the court Allison's hyoid bone was still intact - likely suggesting she wasn't "manually strangled".
However, he said someone killed through "ligature strangulation" could still have their hyoid bone intact.
Prosecutor Danny Boyle asked what kind of ligature would result in the breaking of the hyoid bone.
Dr Milne said anything with a "broad application of force" - such as a sheet or a piece of clothing, would not result in the hyoid bone breaking.
3:29pm AEST:
Dr Leslie Griffiths, a medical forensic officer employed by Queensland Health, examined accused wife killer Gerard Baden-Clay on April 22, 2012 and again on June 14, 2012 and told the court he believed the two scratches on Baden-Clay's face were caused by fingernails.
"I'm saying that I believe it's caused by a fingernail and I have reasons to believe that," he said.
"A fingernail would be at right angles to the skin.
"That (the injuries) could be explained by a convex nail being drawn down the face ... producing an elongated wound."
Defence barrister Peter Davis said the two scratch marks weren't entirely parallel - one started higher and slightly curved away.
"You've got two quite significant scratches which would indicate quite significant force," he said.
Dr Griffiths said that could be explained.
"It could be simply explained by the fingers moving during that exercise," he said.
But Mr Davis said the doctor's explanations were "purely speculation".
"All you can say is it is consistent with finger nails provided you make various assumptions," he said.
The court was also shown lighter scratches on Baden-Clay's neck, on the opposite side to the marks on his jaw.
Dr Griffiths said he believed the marks on the neck were also caused by fingernails.
He said neither the scratches in the face or the neck would have bled.
Another photograph showed scratches and bruising on Baden-Clay's upper chest on the left hand side.
"I think that's a bruise," the doctor said.
"There appears to be a pattern to that bruise - I believe that's a superficial bruise."
The same photograph shows a separate small yellowish bruise on the right hand side of Baden-Clay's chest.
Dr Griffiths said the yellow colour showed the bruise was at least 18 hours old.
2:53pm AEST:
THE court has been shown 14 photographs showing a series of deep scratches on Gerard Baden-Clay's face, chest and shoulder.
The dramatic photographs presented at today's committal hearing have been shown during the cross examination of Dr Leslie Griffiths, a medical forensic officer employed by Queensland Health, who examined Baden-Clay on April 22, 2012 and again on June 14, 2012.
The photographs show two deep scratches on the real estate agent's face, a large red welt-like scratch on his shoulder and a series of red scratches on his chest, near the collar bone.
Dr Griffiths was asked to examine Baden-Clay a second time to shave part of his beard and examine again the marks in his face.
"I was asked by police to remove a portion of the defendant's beard and examine the injuries on the jaw line," the doctor said.
"They (the scratches) were clearly visible.
"But they had faded considerably by that stage.
"It was almost two months later."
1:11pm AEST:
Witness David Jenkinson, who lives in the Kholo Creek area where Allison Baden-Clay's body was found, has told the court he heard two "heavy thuds", a car door closing and dogs barking in the direction of the bridge.
"Between you and the Kholo Creek bridge, there are a couple of streets and a number of houses," defence barrister Peter Davis said, adding that Mr Jenkinson's home was about 700m from the bridge.
Mr Jenkinson, a TAFE teacher, said the noise he heard came from the general direction of the creek.
"The dogs went off, didn't they?" Mr Davis said.
"All the neighbourhood dogs."
Mr Jenkinson agreed, saying it had alerted him to "something unusual".
Mr Davis asked how Mr Jenkinson could be sure that he had heard the noises on the night of April 19.
"I remember having a short discussion with my wife on that night of what we had heard," he said.
"I remember the date because it was a Thursday - my wife works late on Thursdays."
He said he and his wife heard the noises at about 10.30pm.
Mr Jenkinson said he heard two thuds, followed by a car door closing.
"The sound you would hear if you had thrown a full bag of concrete onto grass," he said.
"A heavy thud."
12: 58pm AEST:
Witness Fiona White, who lives in Kenmore Hills, told the court she heard a scream while standing outside her back door.
Her home is close to the Baden-Clay property.
Ms White said she heard two screams but was not certain of the date.
"It was high pitched, two screams," she said.
"It was loud enough that I worried.
"I thought to myself, I hope she's OK."
12:36pm AEST:
Kim Tzvetkoff, who lives across from the Baden-Clay house, told the court he also heard a shout from across the road.
"It was a startled or a shocked yell out," he said.
"Possibly no more than a couple of words which I couldn't discern what they even were.
"Something startling had happened.
"I wouldn't describe it as a scream.
"I feel it was a startled, shocked reaction."
He said he was convinced it was a woman's voice.
"I did say 'what was that?'," Mr Tzvetkoff said.
"And I stood there for a moment and it wasn't repeated."
12:32pm AEST:
Witness Julie Tzvetkoff lives across from the Baden-Clay home and said she heard yelling coming from that direction between 8pm and 9pm on April 19.
"It was sharp, loud," she said.
"I couldn't tell if it was male or female."
Defence barrister Peter Davis said there were other homes, a church and a child care centre across from Ms Tzvetkoff's home.
"What I'm suggesting to you is that you heard a yell - the yell didn't necessarily come from the Baden-Clay property," he said.
"It could have come from any of those properties across the road."
Ms Tzetkoff said the noise came from directly opposite where the Baden-Clays lived - not to the right or the left.
"A very sharp hard yell that lasted about one and a half seconds," she said.
Ms Tzetkoff said her dog - which normally only barked at the sound of doors opening and closing - also barked that night.
"Car doors or other doors? What is this door fetish that your dog has?" Mr Davis asked.
Ms Tzetkoff said her dog often barked at the sound of car doors when visitors came over.
12:21pm (AEST):
Witness Brian Mason has told the court he lives near Kholo Creek in Anstead, 700m from the bridge under which Allison's body was found on April 30.
Defence barrister Peter Davis said there was 700m of trees and other foliage between the bridge and Mr Mason's home.
Mr Mason said he and his wife contacted Crime Stoppers about two matters to do with the Baden-Clay case.
He said the first involved his wife spotting two cars on the side of Mt Crosby Rd at 4am - although the court was not told on which day.
The second was hearing dogs bark.
"Your dog, a German Shepherd, started barking around 12.30am," Mr Davis said.
Mr Mason agreed.
"When I managed to get my dog to stop barking, I could hear howling," Mr Mason said.
"I think to my left, straight ahead, and across the river too."
This was detailed in Mr Mason's first statement, the court heard, which was given on May 12.
He gave a second statement on February 5, 2013.
Mr Davis asked why he came forward with new information so many months later.
"I thought I could hear some voices ... someone talking," Mr Mason said.
"But I didn't think much about that at the time."
Mr Mason said he thought at the time that perhaps it was a neighbour.
"Presumably you didn't think they (the voices) were relevant because they were coming from (the other direction to the creek)," Mr Davis said.
Mr Mason said he was standing in his backyard six weeks ago and realised he could hear the sound of cars travelling over the Kholo Creek bridge.
He called police because he thought it was possible after all that he could have heard someone talking 700m away by the bridge.
11:45am (AEST):
The third witness, Anne Whittle, is now giving evidence.
Ms Whittle, a special education teacher, was living near the Baden-Clays' Brookfield home at the time of Allison's disappearance.
Ms Whittle said she woke to the sound of her neighbour's dogs barking - but had no idea what time it was.
She said she woke a second time to the sound of barking and noticed it was 4am.
11.09am: The second witness, Susan Braun, a neighbour of the Baden-Clays, has taken the stand.
Ms Braun said she was home and in her bedroom on the night of April 19 when she heard her neighbours' dogs barking at 10pm.
"They were very loud barking, very agitated," she said.
At 11.30pm, after falling asleep, Ms Braun said she woke to loud noises.
"I got woken up to very loud human noise," she said.
"Out the front, in the area of the Baden-Clays' residence.
"It sounded like yelling.
"It was a very unpleasant sound.
"As to whether it was a scream or a yell or anything like that...
"It woke me up and it wasn't a pleasant sound because I woke up with a start and thought 'oh my goodness, what is that?'.
"I laid there waiting to hear more.
"I heard it twice.
"I fell back asleep and I was woken up again to it a second time.
"I woke up once again concerned."
Mr Davis asked why Ms Braun did not go out to investigate and why she had been unable to tell whether the voice was a man or a woman.
Ms Braun said she had fallen back asleep waiting to hear more.
10.47am: Witness Kerry-Anne Walker told the court she went to the Baden-Clays' Brookfield home on April 20 after the police called her at work to say Allison had gone missing.
She said when she arrived, she noticed scratches on Gerard Baden-Clay's face.
"You said they were so fresh they appeared to be weeping," Mr Davis said.
She replied: "They were very fresh scratches, yes".
Ms Walker said she asked Allison's dad, Geoff Dickie, who had also arrived at the house with his wife, how Gerard got the scratches on his face.
"Mr Dickie said he had asked Gerard and was told he had cut himself shaving," Ms Walker said.
10.43am: Mr Davis asked Ms Walker whether she would be surprised that as recently as March 19, 2012, Allison had asked for an increase in her anti-depression medication after telling her doctor she was experiencing mood swings.
"That would surprise me, yes," Ms Walker said.
Mr Davis followed with: "There's actually quite a lot going on behind the scenes that she hasn't told you?"
"You're hardly in a position to really assist the court as to what her state of mind would have been."
Ms Walker replied: "I don't agree".
"I think I knew her better than most people.
"I was aware of what she was going through."
10.33am: Ms Walker said she met her friend Allison for coffee in early 2010, where they again spoke about her depression.
"She told me that she had started taking her anti-depression medication again but she didn't like taking it so she was only taking a very small dose," Ms Walker said.
She said most of their conversations during that year were not about depression. Instead, Allison had talked often about her troubled relationship with her husband.
But by 2012, Ms Walker said Allison was doing well.
"After the children, after (her youngest) was about two or three she started working," Ms Walker said.
"Once she started working she was out and about a lot more.
"We would catch up a lot more.
"She was much more outgoing."
The court heard Ms Walker saw her friend for the last time on February 3, 2012.
She said Allison had not discussed feeling depressed at that time.
10.20am: Mr Davis said Allison had told her best friend she was having trouble with depression as far back as 1997 when, while travelling through South America, she experienced it as a side effect of taking malaria medication.
He said she later suffered it during the births of her three children.
In 2009, he said Allison confided to her best friend that she had taken medication for depression.
"So, in 2009, Allison Baden-Clay is effectively telling you she has suffered depression for 12 years," Mr Davis said.
Ms Walker said there were only intermittent bouts of depression during that time.
"She had good days and bad days," she said.
"It was never severe enough that it affected her taking care of the children."
Mr Davis said there was plenty to show Allison had been suffering from depression for many years.
"Some days she couldn't go out of the house, so some days she wasn't able to function," he said.
"She could always function," Ms Walker argued.
10.05am: Mr Davis asked witness Kerry-Anne Walker whether her friend Allison Baden-Clay suffered from depression.
"She suffered from depression, yes," Ms Walker said.
"After her children were born, she told me she suffered from post natal depression."
However, Ms Walker said Allison had been well the past couple of years.
"She was in a very good state of mind before she went missing," she said.
"There were a few occasions where she mentioned she would take her anti-depression medication.
"Maybe twice in a 10 year period.
"She became more withdrawn. She didn't initiate any catch ups as she had prior."
Mr Davis said Ms Walker, in her statements to police, had suggested that the bouts of depression were due to her troubled relationship with her husband.
"I felt that at the time," she said.
"But you're not a psychologist," Mr Davis said.
9.55am: The first witness to take the stand is Kerry-Anne Walker, a close friend of Allison Baden-Clay's.
Ms Walker, a Flight Centre travel agent, provided two statements to police - one after she was reported missing and a second after her body was found.
Defence barrister Peter Davis asked Ms Walker whether she believed Baden-Clay was a suspect when she first gave a statement.
She said Baden-Clay had told her police would point the finger at him.
"Gerard mentioned to me the morning he arrived that police would suspect him," she said.
Mr Davis said Ms Walker had made many observations about the couple's relationship in her second statement.
"Allison and I had numerous conversations over numerous years," she said.
"It was what I felt I needed to speak to the police about."
9.47am: The prosecution case against Baden-Clay is a circumstantial one, prosecutor Danny Boyle has told the court.
He said the Crown considered Baden-Clay had two motives for killing his wife.
The first was the marital problems he was experiencing with Allison.
Mr Boyle said although Baden-Clay had told police he had ended his affair with former work colleague Toni McHugh, there was evidence it was still ongoing.
He said an email sent to Ms McHugh promised he would leave his wife so they could be together by July 1.
The court heard Mr Baden-Clay was also in serious financial difficulty - with debts amounting to $975,000.
9.38am: The gallery caught a brief glimpse of Baden-Clay when his lawyer asked him for some instructions.
Baden-Clay is clean-shaven with neatly trimmed hair and wearing a dark suit and dark-rimmed glasses.
9.25am: The court has heard that one witness, Carmel Ritchie, is separately represented by a lawyer after she was summonsed to give evidence.
Ms Ritchie, a counsellor with relationships Australia, will argue that any documentation or evidence she could give, would be inadmissible in court.
"It is conceded that she is compelled by way of summons but anything she has to say is inadmissible in these proceedings," Ms Ritchie's lawyer told the court.
Peter Davis, for Baden-Clay, said his client did not consent to waiving any "privilege" from the counselling sessions.
The argument over whether Ms Ritchie will be compelled to give evidence on private counselling sessions will be heard next Wednesday.
9.20am: Prosecutor Danny Boyle has told the court 42 witnesses will be called throughout the hearing and 330 statements will be tendered.
Baden-Clay has arrived in court but is hiding from view of the public gallery in the corner of a glassed-in box.
Allison Baden-Clay, 43, was reported missing by her husband on April 20, 2012.
Her body was found 10 days later on the banks of the Kholo Creek at Anstead.
Baden-Clay, 42, was charged with her murder and interfering with a corpse two months later.
Forty-three witnesses, including friends, business partners and staff are expected to be called in the high-profile case.
- Refresh this page for rolling coverage of the hearing during the day
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