Lloyd Rayney, a former Perth barrister and Senior Crown Prosecutor, became embroiled in one of Australia’s most contentious legal battles following the 2007 disappearance and murder of his wife. Publicly labelled by police as the ‘prime’ and ‘only’ suspect, Rayney was charged, tried, and then acquitted. Enduring years of intense scrutiny and severe reputational damage, he succeeded in a defamation action against the State of Western Australia after his acquittal in 2012. Despite the emergence of two violent suspects, the case remains unresolved.

The murder of 44-year-old court registrar Corryn Rayney was among the most high-profile cases in Australia’s legal history, marked by a protracted investigation and highly prejudicial pre-trial publicity. Her body was discovered buried head-down in a shallow grave in Kings Park, her fly undone, belt removed, shirt torn, and boots damaged from being dragged – a disturbing crime that launched an investigation marred by police misconduct and bias. Rayney was vilified in the media. The adverse publicity was so extreme that he was granted a judge-alone trial. While in custody, he was housed in a high-risk prison unit alongside paedophiles and informants, where he witnessed violence firsthand.

The prosecution’s case alleged that Rayney murdered Corryn when she returned from a dance class, concealed her body while their daughter was upstairs, transported the body to Kings Park, dug a grave, and buried her. However, forensic evidence contradicted this theory. Pollen grains recovered from Corryn’s nasal passages indicate that she likely took her final breaths at her burial site in Kings Park.

A key element of the prosecution’s case was the discovery of seed pods in Corryn’s hair, allegedly linking her murder to the Rayney home. However, the forensic pathologist testified that he did not observe any seed pods during his initial examination. He only discovered two during the post-mortem the following day and found it ‘difficult to accept’ that he had overlooked them earlier. He also stated that he was ‘highly on guard’ regarding police conduct, noting that in over two decades of experience, he had never felt such dis-ease with investigators. Months later, a third pod was discovered in the body bag, further intensifying concerns that the evidence may have been planted.

Meanwhile, police overlooked two viable suspects: violent paedophile Allon Mitchell Lacco and his cousin, convicted rapist Ivan Eades. Both had concerning ties to the case. Lacco was seen making phone calls from a public phone box near the Rayney home on the day Corryn disappeared. He was later stopped by police with a knife in his car, sand in his boot, and scratches on his arms – the day after her body was found in a sandy grave. During his arrest, Lacco, unprompted, told police he had heard that a woman had been carjacked in Bentley and was now missing. Bentley was the suburb where Corryn was last seen alive, yet no reports had ever suggested she had been carjacked. It was also reported that, a month before the murder, Lacco had asked an acquaintance, ‘Can you drive a car for me while I dump a body in Kings Park?’ Lacco also possessed a map of Kings Park, a copy of the layout of the Supreme Court, where Corryn worked, and a page of a calendar from August 2007, when she was murdered. Lacco maintained the calendar page did not belong to him but said he had once worked at Kings Park and had the copy of the court layout because he ‘had an interest in the building.’ Additionally, a cigarette butt containing Eades’ DNA was found on the verge outside the Rayney home. Despite being well-known to police, these leads were never thoroughly investigated.

The fallout from the case was devastating. Even after his acquittal, public perception remained hostile, and his professional and personal reputation suffered irreparable harm. Rayney faced relentless harassment from strangers, who threw eggs at his home, left dead crows on his property, and even poured a bucket of sanitary waste over him. His case underscores the dangers of confirmation bias, flawed investigations, and trial by media. To this day, the case remains unsolved, while the overlooked suspects continue to evade accountability.