Gerard Baden-Clay kept seeing lover despite promise to wife
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Version 0 of 1. Accused wife killer Gerard Baden-Clay has admitted rekindling his affair with lover Toni McHugh despite promising his wife he'd end it for good. The 43-year-old has tearfully told a packed Brisbane court room of the day his wife Allison discovered he'd been having an affair with an employee. Baden-Clay said Allison called him one day in September 2011 after learning of his infidelity from a friend. They met in a car park and she asked him "straight out" if he was having an affair with Ms McHugh, who worked at Baden-Clay's real estate business, and he replied that he was. "She was just in shock," he said, breaking into tears in the witness in the supreme court on Monday. "She was just shaking her head, had her head in her hands. She might have been feeling physically ill. "She said 'Do you love her?' and I said 'no'. "She said `you need to make a choice' and it was just an absolute no brainer for me ... I want to be with you and the girls. "She said 'well you need to end it now'." He said McHugh screamed and threw things at him when he told her their affair was over. He agreed to conditions imposed by Allison, including that she would take control of his mobile phone while he was at home. Baden-Clay said he initially ignored McHugh's calls and texts but in December 2011 arranged to meet her at a cafe because he'd heard she was struggling emotionally and he felt responsible. "(I) just wanted her to know that I didn't hate her and to apologise," he said. "She asked me if I loved her. She was very fragile, I could tell, and I told her I did and that I was sorry." Baden-Clay said after that he met McHugh several times and "there were two occasions when we did have some physical intimacy". Their last "tryst" was in January or February 2012, he said. Earlier on Monday, Baden-Clay said he began an on-again, off-again affair with McHugh in August 2008 after his sex life with his depressed wife became "non-existent". He also said he'd had a month-long affair with a former colleague in 2006, which was also just about sex. Baden-Clay reported his wife missing from their home in Brookfield in Brisbane's west on April 20, 2012. Ten days later her body was found 13km away on a creek bank at Anstead. Baden-Clay has pleaded not guilty to murder. The trial continues. |