Wife told of Rayney affair rumours: court

Weeks before Corryn Rayney was murdered, rumours circulated that her husband, prominent barrister Lloyd Rayney, was having an affair and had been paid $200,000 for a trial possibly involving Hancock Prospecting, a court has heard.

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 buried in Kings Park on August 15.

Giving evidence, WA Deputy Chief Magistrate Elizabeth Woods told the court on Thursday that Ms Rayney came to her with concerns a week or two before her death.

She said they had a conversation in which she told Ms Rayney that she had heard some gossip that Rayney had been paid $200,000 for a trial.

Ms Woods said the only name she had was “Hancock”, which she passed on to Ms Rayney.

The court has previously heard that Rayney had been working for Hancock Prospecting and had been on a working holiday to Bali with billionaire Gina Rinehart and his wife four months before her death.

In a statement taken two days before Ms Rayney’s body was found, Ms Woods said she had known Ms Rayney socially for five years and knew Rayney from her days working at the DPP.

“Corryn is a very conservative person who enjoyed work. She was always busy, but I never saw her depressed. She is a determined person,” she said.

Ms Woods said Ms Rayney told her that Rayney had opened a bank account, which she did not have access to, and that the family had lost money because of his gambling.

“She was thinking of subpoenaing Lloyd’s clients to find out now much he was getting paid,” she said.

Ms Woods said she told Ms Rayney there were rumours that Rayney was “involved with a girl”.

She said she believed the couple were going to have a discussion about their relationship on the night Ms Rayney disappeared.

“Corryn wanted to sort out the access to the children with Lloyd, as well as the financial situation,” she said.

“She told me she was planning to get rid of Lloyd from the house.”

Ms Woods said she told Ms Rayney it might be worthwhile for her to leave, but she said she wanted to stay in the house.

“I don’t think she would just leave to get away from things as she is devoted to her children and I don’t think she would want to leave them,” she said in the statement.

Earlier, Rayney’s defence team continued to question the integrity of the West Australian police investigation.

Defence lawyer David Edwardson suggested that when Senior Constable Scott Walker took two liquidambar seed pods found in Ms Rayney’s hair to the WA Herbarium for examination, he did not take gloves and masks as he had testified the day before.

Snr Const Walker rejected the assertion.

He said great care was taken with all exhibits to make sure there was no cross-contamination, including placing items in bags and sealing them.

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

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