Gordon Wood has lost a malicious prosecution lawsuit against the state of NSW despite a judge finding he was prosecuted for the murder of his model girlfriend "without reasonable and probable cause".
The 55-year-old former chauffeur to flamboyant stockbroker Rene Rivkin had pursued the state for millions of dollars in damages in the NSW Supreme Court more than six years after he was acquitted of murdering Caroline Byrne.
July 30, 2008: A jury spent 90 minutes inspecting the area where Caroline Byrne's body was found. Source: AAP
But Friday's ruling means he won't receive any compensation and he's also been ordered to pay the state's costs.
Justice Elizabeth Fullerton in her judgment said the prosecutor in Mr Wood's 2008 trial, Mark Tedeschi QC, had failed to comply with his obligations - but she couldn't find he acted maliciously.
"The plaintiff has failed to establish that Mr Tedeschi prosecuted him maliciously for Ms Byrne's murder, although I am satisfied Mr Tedeschi prosecuted him without reasonable and probable cause," she said.
Mr Wood served more than three years of his 13-year sentence after being convicted of killing his 24-year-old girlfriend at The Gap - a notorious suicide spot in Sydney's eastern suburbs - one night in 1995.
His conviction was overturned in 2012, with the NSW Court of Appeal finding suicide couldn't be ruled out as a cause of the model's death.
The three appeal judges strongly criticised Mr Tedeschi and Associate Professor Rod Cross - a physicist who told the jury Ms Byrne must have been thrown off the cliff.
Mr Wood's lawyer, Bruce McClintock SC, in 2017 said the investigation into the model's death was biased and flawed.
He said police relied on Prof Cross's evidence when he wasn't qualified to speak about how a body may have left the cliff. A photo of the alleged murder scene used at Mr Wood's trial was taken seven years later than claimed.
An allegation that he asked to see the breasts of his girlfriend as she lay in a morgue was also "totally false", the court was told.
But Mr Tedeschi argued his conduct was "fair and detached" and aimed at serving justice.
Model Caroline Byrne was found dead in 1995. Source: AAP
He said that during Mr Wood's trial he considered the evidence was "not just a bare case" against Mr Wood but "a very powerful, cogent case" implicating him.
The former prosecutor listed Mr Wood's inability to explain why he went to The Gap the night of Ms Byrne's death among the evidence that supported a murder prosecution.
While Prof Cross "overstepped the mark" in reporting on matters outside his expertise, Mr Tedeschi said "his core findings were utterly reliable".
Mr Wood in a witness statement said the ongoing battle to clear his name continued to take its toll and he hadn't worked since his 2006 arrest.
He described his years in prison as a "living death" during which he was assaulted by a guard and king hit by a notorious killer.
"Jail must be unbearably difficult even if one is guilty, but as an innocent man it was unimaginable," he said.
