A retired Australian Army major accused of drowning his wife five years ago has walked free from prison and had an ankle bracelet fitted at a Brisbane police station as he awaits trial.
Graeme Davidson was granted bail in the Brisbane Supreme Court on Friday morning and released from the high-security Brisbane Correctional Centre at about 6pm.
Davidson’s daughters drove to the prison at Wacol, about 20km south-west of the central business district, and accompanied their father back to the Brisbane Watch House.
Dressed in a black polo shirt and beige pants, the 56-year-old was smiling as he arrived at the Roma Street police station just before 6.30pm and used the intercom to state he required a personal monitoring device.
‘I hope we’ve got all the paperwork,’ Davidson told daughters Brooke and Robyn as he waited to be let inside.
He re-emerged 45 minutes later and got into the back of a waiting vehicle with his daughters.
Scottish-born Davidson, who had been living in Thailand until his arrest in May, has spent the past three months in custody.
The father-of-three, who also served in the British Army, is accused of murdering Brooke and Robyn’s 54-year-old mother Jacqueline during a kayaking trip in November 2020.
Graeme Davidson looked relaxed as he arrived at the Roma Street police station on Friday night after he was granted bail
The retired Australian Army major was accompanied by his daughters Brooke and Robyn as he waited to enter the police station to be fitted with an ankle monitor
Davidson re-emerged from the police station 45 minutes later
Davidson is further accused of fraud offences over two claims on his wife’s life insurance policies worth more than $1million following what police originally determined to be an accidental death.
Brooke and Robyn – one a high school teacher and the other a nurse – each provided $50,000 to secure their father’s freedom, while one of their partners lodged $150,000.
Davidson will be required to report daily to police and not go within 5km of any international point of departure such as airports or cruise ship terminals.
The dual British-Australian citizen will have to abide by an 8pm curfew and surrender both his UK and Australian passports.
Justice Sullivan said on Friday the Crown had accepted its case against Davidson ‘could not be described as strong’.
‘I have decided to treat the case in a neutral way,’ he said. ‘I have otherwise formed the view… the identified statutory risks can be ameliorated by appropriate conditions.’
‘The nature of this alleged murder and the alleged motive… does not raise the prospect of reoffending in a similar way.’
Davidson moved to the Thai resort town of Hua Hin four months after his wife’s death and married local woman Pick Pattraporn in December 2022.
Davidson used the police station intercom to state he required a personal monitoring device
Davidson left with his daughters to enjoy his first night of freedom in three months
Davidson arrived at Roma Street police station shortly before 6.30pm on Friday night
Retired Australian Army major Graeme Davidson moved to Thailand and married a younger woman after allegedly drowning his wife Jacqueline. The former couple is pictured
On Wednesday, the court heard Davidson had texted a friend while living in Thailand in 2023, describing himself as a ‘cliché’.
‘There are lots of divorcees out here, because there are no de facto laws and you can’t lose 50 per cent of your s***,’ he allegedly wrote.
Justice Sullivan noted the daughters’ relationship with both their father and the woman he was accused of killing: ‘She was their mother.’
Ms Davidson drowned on November 27, 2020 at Lake Samsonvale, near Forgan Cove in Queensland‘s Moreton Bay region, while kayaking with her husband.
Davidson was arrested in Brisbane in May while visiting family, after a coronial investigation led police to believe he had murdered his wife.
Davidson’s barrister Craig Eberhardt KC said on Wednesday the evidence against his client was unable to rule out the possibility his wife had accidentally drowned.
‘It’s at best a weak circumstantial case,’ he told the court.
Mr Eberhardt described Davidson as a law-abiding citizen with no criminal record who received ‘very substantial’ pensions from his service in the British and Australian armies.
He said Davidson had maintained contact with Queensland Police and the coroner for the past five years and submitted there was no suggestion he had the means to flee to Thailand or anywhere else.
‘It’s not as if he’s Tony Mokbel,’ Mr Eberhardt said, referring to the one-time fugitive Victorian drug baron. ‘Even Tony Mokbel was caught ten years later.
‘The idea that suddenly he’d be able to escape is just pure speculation, even if he wanted to.’
Mr Eberhardt said Davidson had not ‘fled’ Australia after his wife’s death but had gone to Thailand because many of his friends and former colleagues were there.
‘He went up there just to see if he liked it, not to move,’ Mr Eberhardt told the court.
Davidson (pictured leaving the police station) has spent the last three months in custody
Davidson, who married Thai woman Pick Pattraporn in December 2022, described himself as a ‘cliché’ in a text message to a mate sent in 2023. The couple is pictured on their wedding day
Davidson and his dead wife’s two daughters Robyn and Brooke (above) arrive at Brisbane Supreme Court on Friday morning for their father’s bail determination
Prosecutor Caroline Marco conceded the Crown’s case against Davidson was circumstantial but said that did not make it weak.
Instead, various threads of evidence – including inconsistencies in Davidson’s version of events – could collectively convince a jury he was guilty of killing his wife.
Ms Marco said Davidson’s statements to police about what happened the day his wife drowned were inconsistent and varied with what he had told friends.
Davidson told police his wife had fallen into the water from a seated position in her kayak but allegedly told a friend she ‘jumped or dove’.
Ms Marco said there were also inconsistencies regarding Davidson’s explanation of his phone’s whereabouts at the time. That phone has never been found.
‘There had to be a reason why it could not be used to render assistance to Jacqueline,’ she told the court.
Ms Marco said Ms Davidson was a capable swimmer and had no known medical condition which would cause her to lose consciousness and fall into the water.
The Crown contends the Davidsons’ marriage was in trouble before Ms Davidson died.
Davidson claims his wife had no intention of leaving him but the court heard she had discussed separation with friends following an affair her husband had while posted in Papua New Guinea.
On Wednesday, Ms Marco said Ms Davidson had told two friends she had spoken to her husband about divorce and he had resisted the idea.
If granted bail, Davidson would live with one of his daughters, who along with his de facto son-in-law (all pictured above) were prepared to lodge $150,000 security
Davidson had allegedly told his wife he did not wish to separate due to the financial impact it would have on him.
Ms Marco also said Ms Davidson had sent ‘secret’ Facebook messages to a friend in early 2020 which were set to disappear after being read.
‘The secret messages that would delete, in my submission, are not consistent with an assertion that at that time there were not ongoing or lingering problems,’ she said.
The court heard Davidson received a $460,000 payout from the Australian Army four months before his wife’s death and that he opened a separate bank account solely in his name three days before she drowned.
Ms Marco said Davidson had returned to Australia only twice since his wife’s death – once when he was arrested – and in mid-2023 sold the marital home for $1.55million.
Last week, Mr Eberhardt argued the prosecution’s case was ‘fundamentally weak’ and relied almost entirely on a comment made during a conversation in 2017.
According to Mr Eberhardt, the remark was made while Davidson and a friend were discussing another man whose wife had left him on the day of his retirement, taken half of his pension, and then moved to Thailand.
In response, Davidson allegedly said, ‘Oh s*** yeah, I’d kill her and move to Thailand too.’
Jacqueline Davidson’s (left) death was initially ruled as an accident until suspicions were raised during a coronial investigation
Mr Eberhardt dismissed the comment as nothing more than ‘a quip’ and insisted it was ‘not nearly as sinister as it sounds’ with the context.
Justice Sullivan noted the prosecution’s case did not include ‘direct evidence of murder,’ and Mr Eberhardt said there was no evidence Ms Davidson had been ‘violently assaulted’ by her husband.
The court heard Ms Davidson’s body showed only minor bruising, which Davidson’s defence argued was consistent with his efforts to rescue her and perform CPR.
Mr Eberhardt said the couple had been about 10m apart on the water when Davidson attempted to ‘show off’ by standing up on his kayak.
‘Jacqueline became distressed about that and used the ‘safe word’… designed to let him know that she was concerned about what he was doing,’ he told the court.
Davidson claimed he then saw his wife fall into the water and dived in to rescue her. But he struggled to locate her in the ‘murky’ and weed-filled lake.
He eventually dragged her to shore where he performed CPR and called for help.
Neither was wearing a life jacket, with Davidson allegedly telling police their vests had been destroyed by rats while the couple was still living in Bondi, in Sydney’s east.
Ms Davidson was unable to be revived after she drowned on a trip on Lake Samsonvale, near Forgan Cove in Queensland’s Moreton Bay region, in late 2020 (pictured, police at the scene)
Mr Eberhardt said a witness had confirmed hearing this explanation prior to Ms Davidson’s death.
In response to the life insurance fraud allegations, Mr Eberhardt said both Mr Davidson and his wife had taken out claims in each other’s favour in mid-2020.
‘There is no evidence the setting up of the insurance policies was the applicant’s idea,’ the defence lawyer said last week.
Mr Eberhardt argued on Wednesday it would have been ‘far more suspicious’ if Davidson had not attempted to access her life insurance following her death.
The court also heard how Mr Davidson was recorded on CCTV burning ‘a small number of documents’ in his backyard the night after his wife drowned, while one of his children was at home.
However, Mr Eberhardt dismissed the footage as ‘not evidence of anything’ since it was unclear what the documents contained.
