‘Horrible to wash blood off his skin’: Accused pilot’s conversations after wife’s death

A court heard a Royal Australian Air Force pilot told a colleague how horrible it was to wash blood off his skin after police arrived at the scene of his wife’s alleged murder, which prosecutors say was staged to look like a ride-on mower accident.

Robert Crawford was a “love rat” who lived a double life before killing his wife, Frances, so he would not lose millions of dollars in a divorce, prosecutors told the Supreme Court in Brisbane this week.

The 49-year-old, who has pleaded not guilty, allegedly staged his wife’s death to look like a yard accident at their 40-hectare property in Upper Lockyer, in south-east Queensland, in July 2024.

The trial has so far heard the accused was involved in a string of extramarital affairs, including with three RAAF colleagues.

Antonia Guterres, who was a loadmaster in the RAAF’s No.35 Squadron with Crawford, told court on Wednesday the pair began a relationship in 2023.

An emotional Guterres said he told her his wife was “bipolar and off her meds”. He also told her about his earlier affair with RAAF pilot Emily Renshaw.

She said Crawford told her he had decided not to split from his wife until their youngest child had finished school.

The court earlier heard he had told another colleague he was “basically in love” with Guterres, and they had discussed having children together.

The now 32-year-old Guterres said she moved under Crawford’s direct chain of command in 2022.

The relationship developed after he told her she looked beautiful at a party at the Regatta Hotel in Brisbane, and that he had feelings for her.

Text messages between the pair in the months before Frances Crawford’s death showed them discussing work issues, and him calling her the “best lil worker bee” and praising how motivated she was.

In one message in late June 2024, Crawford wrote: “Ant, it was so great talking to you yesterday. I probably overshared … but I felt like it needed to be said … and I was speaking from my heart … so I said it.”

Guterres gave evidence about a conversation that took place that month, when a crying Crawford said he still had feelings for her.

“I think I just wanted to get out of the conversation. I felt a bit awkward,” she said, explaining his feelings were not reciprocated.

Guterres said about a month later – on July 26 – Crawford approached her at work, appearing dishevelled, with unkempt hair and a gaunt face.

He said he felt “trapped” in the home, and was “broken and really struggling”, the court heard.

Guterres said she sent Crawford a message on July 31, upon discovering the news of his wife’s death, and he contacted her again in September.

He responded: “Hi Ant, thanks for your kind message. I’m so sorry I’ve been out of touch with everyone. I’m just trying to get through each day. I’ve been hurting a lot, and really struggling.”

He then called her three times in one day in October 2024, the court heard.

Frances Crawford ‘feared for her safety’

Earlier, RAAF pilot Peter Wuttke told the court about conversations with the accused in the days after the death.

Crawford had told him that after emergency services arrived in the morning, police escorted him back to the house and asked him if he wanted to shower, Wuttke said.

Wuttke told police that Crawford spoke of trailing blood through the house, and “how horrible it was to wash the blood off his skin in the shower”, the court heard.

Frances Crawford’s younger sister, Tamara Davis, told the court of an incident in July 2023, where her sister found the accused’s phone and investigated it for clues of affairs.

Crawford was “so angry” he ripped the phone out of her hands, Davis recalled her sister telling her, and yelled at her, making Frances fear for her safety.

In July 2024, Davis said her sister told her the marriage was in disrepair, that she was scared and overwhelmed, and that she wished her husband would have a car accident so she did not have to decide to leave the marriage.

‘I know I have wronged you’

In messages between the Crawfords from July 2023, around the time they had separated, Robert Crawford repeatedly asked to be let into the property, saying it was “his house too”.

“I know I have wronged you, but I don’t think it’s very fair that you take over the house for the next year when you don’t want to work things out at all,” he wrote.

“Churches are full of sinners and I know I am one of them, but so are you.”

In police body-worn footage from a year before Frances’s death, shown to the court, Crawford said his wife had changed the locks on their property, and he had removed louvres on a window to get in.

Police found a pickaxe inside, which Crawford denied using, and his wife said had “nothing to do with it”, the court heard.

Frances Crawford had called Triple Zero as the accused made a coffee inside. In the footage, he approached officers wearing a grey bathrobe, telling them it was his house, and asking why he had to leave.

Officers later interviewed a crying Frances, who said her husband had cheated and she did not want contact with him, in the kitchen.

When asked whether he had been physical, she said: “He believes … he can grab or intimidate and get in your face … and it’s OK, and he has the right, and he should be respected.”

She told officers she “should’ve gotten out long ago”, and she did not believe his personality would change.

Defence barrister Saul Holt KC earlier told the jury that Crawford’s account of his wife’s death had remained consistent – that he woke, saw his wife was not in bed, searched the property, and found her under the mower. He said he pulled her out, before calling for help.

Holt said the scene was not staged, and instead the death was a tragic accident and that mower rollovers were not uncommon.

The trial before Justice Lincoln Crowley continues.

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