Appeal judges said that Gordon Wood was wrongly convicted of the murder of Caroline Byrne and he was released from prison in February after serving three years of a 17 year sentence. Almost everyone has an opinion about the sensational case, but unfortunately for Wood, a large percentage of the general public agree with Caroline's father and think he really did push her off The Gap.
Nobody liked Lindy Chamberlain either, she came across as an aloof, cold woman, devoid of emotion and the public were quick to wrongly condemn her. Unfortunately for Gordon Wood, he has a similar personality.
One of Wood's friends, Georgie Bridge who he met in 2006 told him to get Botox so he didn't look guilty. She said that his "brittle" exterior helped convict him in the eyes of the public. She attended the trial three times but was unconvinced of his guilt but understood why his defense team refused to put him on the stand. "The prosecutor would have made mince meat of him, you can only take so much before you crack and he might have said something he'd regret" she said.
Georgie Bridge
But it wasn't only Wood's appearance that turned people off, it was images of Rene Rivkin's young, male sycophants fawning over the stock broker on board his luxury yacht. And Gordon Wood was his chauffeur. It was easy to jump to the wrong conclusion that Rivkin was having sexual relations with these young men and when questioned about it he said there was a lot of jealousy between his employees and "I've never understood why that is, they just tell me I'm a very desirable boss." A cynic might say that he was popular because he was known to give expensive gifts to his favourites.
Since his release, Wood has been inundated with book offers and it's now likely that he will get a chance to tell his side of the story. He met with US film producer Chris Adams in Sydney last week to discuss a possible book and movie deal that could make him a lot of money. He will tell the world about how he was hounded for more than ten years and jailed for a crime he didn't commit.
"It's a very hard process" Chris Adams said, "It's not like you have an idea and Steven Speilburg knocks on your door, his first port of call would be to have a script written by someone reputable."
Wood has also been talking to his legal team about launching a claim for compensation from the NSW government for wrongful imprisonment.
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