Former RAAF pilot to stand trial accused of staging wife’s death as lawn mower accident

A former Royal Australian Air Force pilot has been committed to stand trial over allegations he killed his wife and then staged it to look like a lawn mower accident.

Robert John Crawford allegedly killed his wife Frances Elizabeth Crawford at their rural Upper Lockyer Valley property near Toowoomba on July 30 last year about 3.30am.

The death was staged to look like an accident, the prosecution has alleged, and the 47-year-old is accused of manipulating the scene by sending messages from his wife’s phone to himself after her death.

Following a two-day committal, Acting Magistrate Sue Ganasan said on Thursday Crawford would face trial in the Supreme Court.

The former pilot’s barrister said the case was “extraordinarily weak”, and reiterated there was no concession in the case.

When asked if he wished to say anything, Crawford answered: “Not guilty, your honour”.

The committal heard evidence from forensic witnesses and police who spoke of their analysis of Mrs Crawford’s injuries.

On Thursday morning, the court heard evidence from Detective Timothy Roberts, who declared a crime scene at the property on the morning of July 30.

Crawford’s barrister, Saul Holt KC, questioned Roberts over how officers had accessed Crawford’s phone at the scene.

Roberts said he was shown text messages between the husband and wife’s phones.

At the time of the death, Crawford was being treated as a witness, with Roberts telling the court he was unable to determine if other people had been at the home during the night, and Crawford had said he was asleep for a period.

Holt asked Roberts if he recalled how Crawford had expressed concerns to him his wife’s death was being reported in the media as a suspicious death.

“Do you recall assuring him that he was not, in fact, a suspect and the media were just doing what the media do, rather than anything else?” he asked.

The court also heard from a member of the Queensland Police Service’s electronic evidence unit, who assessed Crawford’s phone.

He told the court under his analysis that the login data on the phone could only be generated by manual usage of the device.

Crown Prosecutor Chris Cook told the court there was no contest Crawford’s phone was accessed many times between midnight and 4am. Under objection from Holt, Cook stopped his questioning.

The committal yesterday heard evidence from Dr Andrzej Kedziora, who told the court Mrs Crawford suffered injuries to her head, neck, chin, and fractures to the ribs.

Kedziora was questioned on the various scenarios he considered when analysing the death. He said it was difficult to rule out possibilities without seeing a reconstruction or looking at the lawn mower parts himself. The scenarios included Mrs Crawford falling from the mower over the retaining wall, or that she was allegedly strangled.

He said it was possible some of Mrs Crawford’s injuries could have been caused from a fall or the lawn mower. He also said some of her neck injuries could have been caused by a hand rubbing or an elbow during a headlock.

“And the abrasions may have been caused by [Mrs Crawford’s] nails grasping the forearm and hitting the skin of the neck. This is a possibility and I do not give it any probability,” he said.

Kedziora also told the court when Queensland Ambulance Service arrived about 4am, they reported Mrs Crawford’s body was cold and stiff, and rigor mortis in basically all muscle groups.

“So basically, it sort of means that Mrs Crawford had been deceased for some time for the rigor mortis to develop,” Kedziora said.

“If I see quite a bit of bruising around the neck, it means that it may have been sustained during life.”

Crawford and his legal team declined to comment to media outside court.

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