Tapes expose Rayney marriage crisis
Recordings of the final days of the crumbling marriage of Lloyd and Corryn Rayney were played to a jury yesterday as the prosecution wrapped up its case alleging the former high-profile prosecutor helped illegally
tap his wife’s phone calls.
Mr Rayney, who was acquitted of murdering his wife after a trial in 2012, denies that he hired a technology guru to intercept telephone calls Mrs Rayney made at their Como house in the days before she disappeared in 2007.
Prosecutors have also outlined how months earlier, Mr Rayney recorded interactions between he and his wife on an electronic note-taker, which were later found on a CD in his briefcase.
Seven of those recordings were played in court — along with one short recording said to be one of those captured by the recording system sourced and installed by Tim Pearson, but allegedly instigated and paid for by Mr Rayney.
Concluding her arguments, prosecutor Lesley Taylor also read a short statement from Sharon Coutinho, Mrs Rayney’s sister, which described their relationship as “very close”.
Ms Coutinho, who watched from the court’s public gallery, said that in July and August 2007 police told her seven calls were made between her home number and her sister’s. She said it would have been very unusual if Mr Rayney had called her.
As he continued to deny the allegations of phone tapping, Mr Rayney did make a series of formal admissions to the court — including that their marriage had become acrimonious and that he had refused a demand from her that he move out of their home.
He also admitted that his wife, her sister and close friends Janine Gillett and Julie Porter would not have known their phone calls were being recorded in July and August 2007.
Earlier witnesses told how Mr Rayney had laid bare his bitter marriage break-up, which one described as being “a battle of the Titans”.
Mr Pearson told how he was approached by Mr Rayney through a friend, and had set up the recording equipment in the roof.
Police later found his fingerprints on a manhole cover in the ceiling of Mrs Rayney’s bedroom.
