As news breaks that Gerard Baden-Clay’s murder conviction has been downgraded to manslaughter, focus has turned to the parents of his late wife, Allison.
Pauline and Geoffrey Dickie, who currently care for the Baden-Clay’s three daughters, provided these victim impact statements to the court during their estranged son-in-law’s murder trial.
Allison’s father, Geoffrey Dickie
I am the father of Allison Baden-Clay (deceased) and the grandfather of her three beautiful daughters, now aged 13, 10 and 7 years.
I have been devastated by the murder of my precious, gifted and talented daughter.
Her achievements have been well documented over the past two years since her death.
From an early age she studied and strived to achieve perfection in whatever she attempted.
Whatever organisation she joined, for example, Flight Centre, she always advanced to become a leader because of her intelligence and friendly personality.
Being a Rotary Exchange student, she lived with her host families in Denmark for 12 months and travelled through Europe.
This gave her the incentive to travel the world and study various languages.
She was always willing to help others and as such entered the Miss Queensland competition to fundraise for the Cerebral Palsy organisation.
She did not have an opportunity to reach her full potential but she changed the lives of many people through her work with Pathways and other organisations.
She gave up her successful career to pursue her dream of having a loving husband and happy and healthy children.
She was reduced from a happy, intelligent, capable woman to a woman concerned about saving her marriage and protecting and caring for three daughters.
Allison had been convinced that she was inadequate and not a good wife and mother.
She was constantly trying to improve herself and her appearance to measure up to the expectations of her husband.
She tried hard to save her marriage.
Finally, in the end, she paid the ultimate price for the marriage and the love of her three daughters.
From the time we received the phone call on the morning of April 20, my life has changed.
We were living a relaxed lifestyle of retirees and were involved in various charity organisations.
As a result of the murder of our daughter, I am living an entirely different lifestyle, mourning the death of our daughter, which leaves an enormous black hole in our lives from which we will never recover.
The memory of Allison and the circumstances surrounding her death are constantly on my mind.
I wake up in the middle of the night and find it difficult to go back to sleep because as soon as I wake, the thoughts and aspects of the tragedy are always on my mind.
I also constantly try to imagine how she felt at the moment when she was being attacked and realised she was about to lose her life.
I know she would have found the strength to fight hard and long as she could to the end before she was murdered.
During the period of the search, we waited and prayed with family and friends at the Brookfield Showgrounds.
We waited day after day, and at the end of each day, when the sun was setting and the light was fading, we left with the thought that we were leaving our daughter alone at night, lying somewhere exposed to the elements.
Our worst fears were realised when her body was discovered.
Her death has not only affected our lives but extends to our immediate family, extended family and friends.
No matter what the future holds, our lives will never be the same until the day I die.
But I will strive to live life to the maximum due to the fact that I have the immense privilege of caring for Allison’s three magnificent daughters who unfortunately do not have a voice to express their feelings about the loss of their mother to the court.
After two years of living and caring for the girls, I would not change my life with them for anything unless I could bring Allison back to care for them herself.
We gain inspiration from three strong, resilient young girls because we want them to live a life like the life that Allison would have wanted for them.
On the night of April 19, 2012, they said “goodnight” to their mother and went to bed.
They woke up the next morning to find her missing, forever.
They did not have a chance to say goodbye.
When they are hurt physically or mentally, they cannot call out for “mummy” and she will be absent from special occasions, such as weddings, birth of children, Mother’s Day, Christmas, birthdays etcetera.
When other children are talking about their mother, the girls can only absorb the pain and disappointment.
They will grow up into beautiful, intelligent young women who will be strong and contribute to society, because they are a product of their mother’s character and love, but they will be without the most important person in their lives, to share their triumphs and disappointments.
From time immemorial, it is a known fact that a father’s duty is to protect and care for his daughter. Due to the mistreatment and subsequent murder of my beautiful daughter, I have failed in my duty as a father and I will have to live with that for the rest of my life.
He asked me for my daughter’s hand in marriage and I gave him my permission, but I didn’t give you permission to betray her.
We accepted you into our family and you abused our trust with your lies and deceit.
I am devastated, incensed and outraged by the way you have damaged and sullied the memory of my daughter’s life by your statements and innuendos when she is not here to defend herself, adding to the pain and suffering of our family.
The girl’s father has taken their mother from them forever and I trust that justice will be served for my daughter Allison, and that he gets the sentence that he deserves.
Allison, I love you and miss you and you will be forever in my heart.
Allison’s mother, Priscilla Dickie
My daughter was a wonderful mother, a devoted wife, a caring daughter, a loving aunt, sister-in-law and good friend to all who knew her – an incredible achiever.
Because of her life experiences, we had the utmost faith in Allison’s ability to handle any situation in her life.
This she proved while fighting for her life leaving those telling scratch marks on Gerard’s face on that fateful night. God bless her.
The impact of seeing those scratch marks on his face the day she was reported missing will remain with me forever.
It was obvious to me that one of the last things Allison did was to leave her marks on her husband.
So much has happened since April 20, 2012, where do I start?
The impact of waiting for 10 days at the Brookfield Showgrounds waiting for news, dealing with the realisation that her body had been discovered, organising a funeral, dealing with lawyers, media, counselling sessions, an investigation into Allison’s death and ultimately a trial.
Since June 13, 2012, we went from being a happily retired couple involved in church and community activities on the Gold Coast to being guardians of three young girls.
Everyday we willingly deal with school days, special school events and many before and after-school activities.
The impact of finding out about the troubled marital relationship over the past few years has been distressing.
It has devastated me to know that Allison had been living in a fearful relationship and was trying to handle such a situation alone.
His admission of adultery not once but many times during this trial was not easy to digest and goes against everything we believe as Christians.
His constant self-interest and continual lying to Allison, his family and friends has disgusted me and my family.
He betrayed her and has made a mockery of their marriage and their life together and we are deeply saddened by this fact.
He promised to take care of her and treat her well, and again, as is evident, he did the opposite.
To kill your wife, take away a mother and to still show no remorse has to us been one of the saddest and most distressing facts from this murder.
For the love of her husband and children Allison stayed and died.
The impact of Allison’s murder has had far-reaching effects and the ramifications that have followed have completely and dramatically changed the rest of my life, my husband’s, my children and their families.
The sorrow and loss of our precious daughter and the long and stressful journey we have had to take to find her killer has been difficult.
Allison did not leave her girls. She had so much to offer them. She just loved them.
To be taken from us all so suddenly by such a horrific murder completely devastated me.
Not given the opportunity to say goodbye, hug or tell her how much we loved her is shattering and we have all been robbed of Allison’s love and guidance. The pain does not go away.
At the command centre set up at the Brookfield Showgrounds, we spent many long days waiting for some news.
Watching the police, SES and all the volunteers searching and doing all that they could to find her.
The support of my family and friends each day gave me the strength to carry on.
My hopes were fading, sadness filled my heart with the now likelihood of never seeing her alive again.
Then we were told that a body had been found under a bridge.
After 10 days of waiting, the anguish, the heartache, the discovery of our darling daughter under a bridge was absolutely shattering.
We were shocked that in all that time her husband did not ever come to search or wait at the command centre.
His complete existence has been for his own self-gratification which is upsetting for us and for those close to us.
I have been consumed by the enormity of this horrific murder of our darling daughter.
No-one can take the place of a mother and my heart breaks as I do my very best to fill the gap.
I have completely and willingly changed my life as a grandma to adapt to my new situation which is to now wholeheartedly care for Allison’s three daughters.
I have willingly taken on the role of caring for Allison’s daughters and I believe that their resilience to this tragedy is a result of her guidance and love.
They miss her terribly and cry for her at night.
To have Mummy put them to bed one night and then to wake up the next morning and be told that Mummy is missing, what a situation to face.
The girls will never see their mother again! Not just now but forever and ever and ever.
They have been condemned to a life sentence without the love and companionship only a mother can give.
What can you do or say when dealing with the stress of hugging a little crying girl saying “I want my mummy!” and answering the question, “Does mummy love me?”
These are heart-wrenching moments in my life and theirs which never ever should have happened.
Over the coming years, there will be many more times like this to handle.
It is heart-breaking that these three young girls have been deprived of the love of the most caring and devoted mother.
The pain of having to bury your child – a mother of three, a daughter, sister, aunt, friend, is just indescribable.
The tragedy of it all is that she had so much to offer.
Our lives are so very different. Everything has totally changed.
As a grandma, my life now revolves around Allison’s daughters and is dedicated to their care.
I have no Allison to love, hug, talk to, to take advice from.
Throughout this trial I have been deeply hurt, by the smear campaign against Allison’s name by her husband and those supporting him.
My daughter has been robbed of a LIFE.
This man murdered one but has in turn destroyed the lives of many others.
You have changed your daughter’s destinies and sentenced them to a journey they must take through life without a mother and all I have left are the memories of a wonderful daughter.
