Robert Crawford denies murdering wife as trial hears competing accounts

Robert Crawford has pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife, Frances, as prosecutors and defence lawyers presented sharply different accounts of her death to a Supreme Court jury in Brisbane. The trial concerns her death at the couple’s Upper Lockyer property in July 2024, where her body was found near a ride-on mower at the bottom of a retaining wall. Prosecutor Chris Cook alleges Crawford killed Frances and staged the scene to make her death appear to be a mower accident. He told jurors the alleged killing occurred amid a deteriorating marriage, Crawford’s relationships with other women and potential financial losses if the couple divorced. These are prosecution claims, not findings by the court. Cook said Crawford had affairs during the marriage and concealed them from his wife, including by saying he was away on work trips. Prosecutors also alleged he stood to lose money in a divorce settlement and wanted to retain the couple’s home and his superannuation. The prosecution has said it will seek to prove Frances died through strangulation or blunt-force trauma. The defence says Frances died in an accident involving the mower, and disputes the allegation that Crawford staged...