Overview

• Acting Magistrate Sue Ganasan ordered Robert John Crawford to face trial in the Supreme Court following a committal in Ipswich.
• Prosecutors allege Crawford strangled his wife, Frances, then staged the scene to mimic a lawnmower mishap and sent messages from her phone to his.
• Forensic pathologist Dr Andrzej Kedziora detailed extensive head, neck and rib injuries and said he could not determine the cause without a scene reconstruction.
• The defence advanced an accident scenario involving a fall or mower compression, while the pathologist acknowledged those mechanisms remained possible.
• A police electronic evidence specialist testified Crawford’s phone showed repeated manual access between midnight and 4am as investigators reviewed texts between the couple’s devices.