1233132121 Gerard
Gerard (Robert) Baden Clay, was born on 9 September 1970 at The Firs Nursing Home in Bournemouth, the elder son of Nigel (Gerard Arden) Clay and Elaine (Isabel Nora) née Hughes. Elaine flew back from Africa for the birth, and was met at Heathrow by her husband's brother, Robin, who then flew out to Africa and stayed with Nigel just before Gerard was born. Gerard was christened at Hampton Court on 1 November 1972, and named after his father's father, and Gerard's father's elder brother Robin was godfather (by proxy). Susie de Candole, who married Robin fourteen months later, was at the christening. Elaine took Gerard back to Africa on ______________
Gerard graduated from the University of Southern Queensland with a Bachelor of Business degree and, after working as an Accountant with KPMG Peat Marwick in Brisbane for a few years, Gerard decided that he didn’t want ot remain an Accounatnt for the rest of his career, so took a job with Flight Centre as a Travel Agent.
On 23rd August, 1997, Gerard married Allison Dickie, a colleague at Flight Centre. After an extended honeymoon in England and Europe, they returned to Brisbane and again worked for Flight Centre.
They had three daughters all born in Brisbane – Hannah, born on 3rd July 2001; Sarah, born on ; and Ella, born on 15th September 2006.
On __________ at_______________ , Gerard married Allison Dickie ofIpswich, Queensland, and they have three daughters:
Hannah Betty was born in Brisbane on 3rd July 2001 and christened at _______________ on __________
Caroline was born in Brisbane on 16th December 2003 and christened at _______________ on __________
Eleanora - known as Ella - was born in Brisbane on 15th September 2006 and christened at _______________ on __________
Gerard decided to set up as an Estate Agent, and formed "Century 21" on a franchise, . . . . .
Allison tragically died on 20th April 2012, having disappeared for 10 days. Her body was found on the banks of the Kholo Creek, some 13 kms from their home. Two years later Gerard was tried for her murder and was found guilty by a jury, despite there being only circumstantial evidence that a crime had been committed. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, with eligibility for parole after 15 years.
Allison Dickie
Allison was born in ___________ on 1st July 1968, the daughter of Geoff and Priscilla Dickie of Spencer St, Redbank, Ipswich, Queensland. Allison's appetite for travel was whetted as a 10-year-old at Redbank State School. An inaugural member of the Australian Youth Ballet, she toured the UK, including the Edinburgh Festival.
Educated further at Ipswich Girls' Grammar School where she became vice-head girl., she went on a Rotary exchange program to Scandinavia where schooling was different from the same-sex regime she was used to. Allison laughed at the memory: "Scandinavia was completely different. There's drinking and smoking at school. And there were all these boys around," she said Returning home a year later, Allison enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts course at the University of Queensland, learning Japanese and majoring in psychology.
In April 2000, Queensland Times journalist Jayde Walker interviewed Allison and "found her to be thoughtful, optimistic and adventurous." "One thing I try to work on is living in the moment. I think sometimes it's a very difficult thing to do," Allison said at the time.
After graduation, she had a short stint as a Japanese translator on Heron Island, and then started as a consultant at Flight Centre in Brisbane. Her success there resulted in her being appointed a year later as manager of the Ipswich Flight Centre branch. In her spare time, she raised more than $13,000 for charity and was crowned Miss Brisbane. She also was named Ipswich Young Business Woman of the Year. "It was a good process. They judged you on personal attributes as well as business and what you'd done for Ipswich and the business community," Allison said. "They really do work hard to promote Ipswich and, in particular, women in Ipswich."
From Ipswich, she headed back to Brisbane to take the role of Flight Centre's Queensland manager for human resources. A year later, the then 27-year-old was promoted to global human resources manager, responsible for more than 3000 employees worldwide. During this period, Allison met Gerard, who was the national manager for 24 Hour Flights. He offered to fix her computer and she sheepishly admitted to having lots of computer problems.
Their honeymoon turned into a working holiday that ended in Switzerland, at the Kandersteg Scout establishment.
Flight Centre called them back to Australia, with Allison taking the role of staff recruiter and trainer and Gerard becoming assistant director. Ms Walker's story said Allison was "filled with bright prospects when considering her future". "At the moment, I'm at a fairly transitional period in my life," she said. "I've always had goals and this is the next big step. It's a strange time; it's been good to just sit back and have the time - and then be able to say which direction to go in."
During their honeymoon, they travelled to South America, and Allison took an anti-malarial prophylactic, which re-acted with her contraceptive Pill to cause her permanent severe and chronic depression, but she forbade Gerard to tell anyone about it, until five years later she allowed him to tell his parents. This depression was compounded by severe post-natal depression following the births of her three girls and a miscarriage. In May 2004, when her father-in-law Nigel was in England for the funeral of his mother Betty (and en-route to Nova Scotia for the wedding of his second so Adam), he confided to his brother Robin their grave fears for Allison’s mental health.
On Thursday evening, 19th April 2012, Allison disappeared; her partially decomposed body was found ten days later in the river. On 13th June Gerard was charged with her murder, was found guilty (on the basis of virtually no evience) and was sentenced to "life imprisonment" [=15 years].
