Unusual seed pods in hair, WA court told

Unusual seed pods found in Corryn Rayney’s hair were not likely to have come from anywhere near her grave site, a Perth court has been told.

Prominent barrister Lloyd Rayney has pleaded not guilty in the Supreme Court of Western Australia to the wilful murder of his 44-year-old wife.

The former Supreme Court registrar went missing on August 7, 2007, after leaving her weekly bootscooting class and her body was found on August 15.

Dr Kingsley Dixon, the director of science at Kings Park, told the court on Thursday about a liquidambar tree found only at the entrance of the park.

Pods from a liquidambar tree were found in Ms Rayney’s hair when her body was recovered buried in Kings Park.

Dr Dixon said the North American trees had been common in Perth 150 years ago, but began to wane in appeal during the 1960s.

He said there were still liquidambar trees in suburbs surrounding Kings Park but the park did not have many, because the trees produced a prickly fruit that did not shatter when it hit the ground and could hurt feet if stepped on.

Dr Dixon said it was unlikely that wind or birds could have made the pods travel such a great distance from the entrance of Kings Park to the grave site deeper into the park.

A key part of the prosecution’s case is proving that Ms Rayney was killed at her home where there is a liquidambar tree in the front yard.

Earlier, Senior Constable Steven Wells told the court he examined Ms Rayney’s abandoned car and noticed damage under the right-hand side as well as oil on the transmission sump.

Prosecutor John Agius, SC, said a missing piece of the car’s transmission was found buried in sand near a bollard at the entrance of a track in Kings Park that led to Ms Rayney’s grave site.

The judge-alone trial before the former chief justice of the Northern Territory Supreme Court, Brian Martin, is continuing.

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