CLIFF FALL AT THE GAP IN SYDNEY

In June 1995, Caroline Byrne died as a result of a fall from a cliff at The Gap in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. The Gap is a popular scenic spot and is also a notorious suicide spot. The police initially dismissed Caroline’s death as just another suicide.

Thirteen years later, in November 2008, her boyfriend Gordon Wood was found guilty of throwing her off the cliff. The trial lasted 12 weeks, there were over 100 witnesses, the trial was the first in NSW to be conducted with 15 jurors, and the jurors were selected partly on the basis that they were not scared of heights. They were taken three times to visit The Gap, once at night.

Evidence was presented at the trial that a woman of average athletic ability could not jump as far as she was found, 11.8 m out from the cliff. Evidence was also presented showing that a strong male can throw a 61 kg female at speeds up to 4.8 m/s. The launch speed required to land 11.8 m out, from the 29 m high cliff, was at least 4.5 m/s. Since Caroline Byrne landed head first, wedged in a crevice between two large boulders, the evidence suggested that she either dived from the top of the cliff or was thrown head first.

Gordon Wood claimed that, at about 2am, he was guided by Caroline’s spirit to The Gap where he managed to see her white shoes at the bottom of the cliff on a pitch black night using a weak torch to penetrate 30 m of sea mist. Caroline’s brother, Peter, was with him and could see nothing at all. The police searched with strong torches and could see nothing. A helicopter pilot with a powerful search light could see nothing. The implication was that Wood saw where she landed before 1 am, since the moon set at 1am. Three people nearby heard a loud scream coming from that spot at about 11pm.

In September, 2003, I was asked by Detective Paul Jacob from the Homicide Squad to conduct some tests. Part of his letter is shown below. He and I both guessed that the tests would be inconclusive.

Aerial view of The Gap in Watson’s Bay. The safety fence near the top of the photo comes to a corner point 1.2 m from the edge of the cliff. Caroline Byrne landed below this corner point, 11.8 m out from the ledge at the top right corner of the photo.

The launch point was identified as the square ledge jutting out from the cliff about half way down the photo, and about 2/3 of the way across the photo. The maximum runup distance to the tip of the ledge was 4.0 m. Bush against the fence was 1m thick.

Plan view. The nearest launch points to the landing point (P) included the tip of the north ledge, which was higher up and had a longer runup approach than points near C. The police initially thought that Caroline landed at point B, which suggested that she may have run 20 m from D to E and jumped 13 m at high speed to B.

The next two graphs show that a woman of average athletic ability can dive at about 3.5 m/s after a 4 m runup, or jump feet first at about 3.8 m/s. Six of the 7 women in these tests were above average in athletic ability. Subject 5 was a hurdling champion at school.

Many low speed throw methods were attempted before it was realised that a head-first throw at shoulder height, in line with the woman’s centre of mass, would result in maximum launch speed, without energy loss due to rotation. Furthermore, there was no danger of the man overbalancing since all his forward momentum generated in the runup was transferred to the woman. The tests also showed that one man could throw a woman faster than two men, in the same way that one man can throw a javelin or a shot put faster than two men trying to throw it as a team effort. The point here was that two men were seen with Caroline Byrne a few hours before she died, one of them being identified as Gordon Wood.

Low speed throws High speed throw

Taken at Darlinghurst Court, November 2008. Detective Inspector Paul Jacob, Meaghan Fleeton (DPP Office), Detective Matt Moss, Mark Tedeschi (NSW Senior Crown Prosecutor), Ken McKay (Crown Prosecutor) Detective Paul Quigg, A/Prof Rod Cross.

“Low profile” method used by detectives to discourage onlookers while getting to and from the bottom of the cliff in 2004 – 2005

Sergeant Mark Powderly, at the top of the cliff, recovered the body of Caroline Byrne in June 1995. He was asked to identify the landing point on January 6, 2004, when this photo was taken. A man is standing at the base of the pyramid rock where she landed.