Star witness says leap would have been beyond Carl Lewis
October 17, 2008
TO leap unaided from The Gap to rocks where model Caroline Byrne landed was a feat beyond the abilities of track and field athlete, a jury has been told.
Ms Byrne, 24, was found wedged head-first between rocks at the foot of the notorious cliff-top suicide spot in June 1995.
Her live-in lover, Gordon Wood, is being tried for murder in the NSW Supreme Court.
The crown’s star witness Professor Rodney Cross today told the jury it would have been impossible for Ms Byrne to have propelled herself from the cliff face in Sydney’s east.
An expert sports physicist who has been published on subjects as diverse as billiards, balloons and lawn bowls, Professor Cross also wrote a peer-reviewed article on the physics of Ms Byrne’s death.
He carried out a series of experiments, based on precise measurements of The Gap, the hole where Ms Byrne was found, and position of her body.
Using NSW police cadets as subjects, Professor Cross determined that none but the most athletic women - the prevalence of which was about 1 in 10,000 - could have achieved the requisite run-up speed to land where Ms Byrne was found.
She was wedged head-first at a point known as Pyramid Rock, some 12m out from the cliff face, requiring a run-up speed of 4.9m/sec.
That was the equivalent of sprinting 100m in roughly 10 or 11 seconds in ideal conditions.
“It was only possible for a person of elite athletic standard to do such a thing,” he told the court.
Crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi, QC, asked whether celebrated US Olympic sprinter and long-jumper Carl Lewis could have gathered such a launch speed.
“No, he can almost make it, but no,” the professor replied.
Police posed about 20 possible scenarios to Professor Cross, most of which he said he could immediately discount as impossible.
These included Ms Byrne tripping, slipping, stumbling or walking backwards.
Instead, Professor Cross said he explored the likelihood she was thrown.
Again using police subjects, he concluded a second series of experiments at a swimming pool to explore the launch speed possible with different methods of throwing a body.
Underarm, overarm and sideways techniques failed, as did a hammer throw, where two male cadets each attempted to swing a female colleague by the ankles over their heads.
“I tried that with the female subject and couldn’t get her head and shoulders off the ground,” he said, prompting chuckles from the jury.
There was only one method which achieved the requisite speed, and that was a spear throw, he said.
Holding the woman’s crotch with his right hand, and supporting her chest with his left, one of the cadets could throw the woman at 4.8m with a short run-up.
Professor Cross is one of the crown’s final witnesses, and much of its circumstantial case against Wood rests on his findings.
A number of witnesses have told the court Wood, a former personal trainer, could easily bench press 100kg.
The crown claims he was strong enough, and had the motivation, to throw Ms Byrne to her death.
Professor Cross will continue his evidence next week.
AAP
