Date set for State appeal against Rayney verdict

The State bid to overturn Lloyd Rayney's acquittal on the charge of murdering his wife Corryn will be fought over three days in August.

The State lodged an appeal against the not guilty verdict handed down last November after a three-month trial before a judge alone.

A spokeswoman for the Court of Appeal said this morning that State's appeal would begin on August 6.

The trial cost WA taxpayers millions of dollars because an interstate judge and prosecution team had to be used because of Mr Rayney and his wife's senior roles in Perth's legal fraternity.

Mrs Rayney was a Supreme Court registrar.

In Justice Brian Martin's verdict, he noted that while there had been strong suspicion raised by the evidence, the prosecution had unsurmountable gaps in their case filled by speculation.

The NSW Office of Director of Public Prosecutions lodged the appeal last November.

The application cited the following grounds of appeal:

"The trial judge erred in law in failing to apply the principles enunciated in R v Hillier (2007) 228 CLR 618 in relation to the assessment of circumstantial evidence in that his Honour assessed the circumstances in a piecemeal and sequential manner and failed to consider the circumstances as a whole.

"The trial judge erred in law in finding that the fact that the deceased was attacked at, or in the near vicinity of her house, did not alone establish guilt, for the nature of the circumstantial case was that no fact alone established guilt.

"The trial judge erred in law in concluding that the finding of the respondent’s dinner place card near the burial site did not prove guilt for the significance of that fact was not assessed together with the other circumstances, in particular, it was not assessed together with the accepted fact that the deceased had been attacked at or near her home."

Unlike in jury trials, Justice Martin had to detail the reasons for his verdict of not guilty, providing more scope for the State to look for grounds of appeal in his 369 page judgment.

Juries do not need to publish their reasons for a verdict.

In his verdict, Justice Martin criticised certain police actions in the investigation as well as Mr Rayney's credibility.

Mrs Rayney went missing after an evening dance class on August 7, 2007, and was later found buried in Kings Park.

Mr Rayney has always maintained his innocence regarding her death while the prosecution alleged he had killed her to prevent her carrying out threats to ruin his reputation and legal career as they headed towards divorce.

Justice Martin found that the evidence could not rule out Mrs Rayney, a Supreme Court registrar, had been the victim of an attack, possibly a sexual assault bid, carried out by an unknown party.