Saul Holt KC told the court there had been a material change of circumstances in evidence in relation to cause of death.<\/p>\n
Mr Holt said an independent forensic pathologist report obtained by the defence had found that drowning “could not be excluded”, and this “dramatically changes the picture for the prosecution case”.<\/p>\n
“If drowning is a genuine option, then it leaves open a very significant number of other possibilities,” he said.<\/p>\n
![\"Crystal](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2adb674a1d65f314d423748b78f4ea5e.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Crystal Beale’s body was found in the Brisbane River in February last year. (Supplied: Queensland Police)<\/p>\n
The court heard Ms Beale’s cause of death could not be determined, but a post-mortem examination found Ms Beale had suffered serious neck injuries.<\/p>\n
Mr Holt told the court if there was now a “reasonable possibility” she drowned, it weakened the prosecution’s allegations that those injuries may have caused or contributed to her death.<\/p>\n
“That creates a whole lot of significant questions for the crown \u2026 about causation,” he said.<\/p>\n
Defence to contest ‘circumstantial case’<\/p>\n
Mr Holt told the court his client was a good candidate for bail, as he had strong ties to Queensland, including being the sole carer for his teenage son who had medical issues.<\/p>\n
“This is \u2026 on its face, a genuinely contestable, circumstantial case,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It will be a contested trial.”<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/d815a939fb7dcb0a921b82f1e69f2090.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
CCTV footage captured Crystal Beale on the night prosecutors allege she was murdered.\u00a0 (Supplied: Queensland Police Service)<\/p>\n
Crown prosecutor Dejana Kovac opposed Mr Beale’s release, telling the court there was no “new development” that would constitute a material change.<\/p>\n
“When one looks at the original pathologist’s report, drowning was always one of several potential mechanisms,” she said.<\/p>\n
Ms Kovac told the court, even if it was accepted drowning was a reasonable possibility, it “does not undermine” its case.<\/p>\n
“The crown does not need to prove [Ms Beale] was dead before entering the water,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It is sufficient for the crown to prove that [Mr Beale] inflicted the serious neck injuries and that in the state she was in, injured, vulnerable and potentially incapacitated, he placed her in the river.”<\/p>\n
“Either believing she was dead or not caring she was alive.”<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/7becd1cfc4ce09196fb140512af31972.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Justice Patrick McCafferty KC reserved his decision to tomorrow. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
The court heard the prosecution will allege a confrontation was triggered between the pair after Ms Beale discovered intimate photographs of herself on Mr Beale’s iPad.<\/p>\n
Ms Kovac told the court it will be alleged the images were taken without her consent, and it was clear he wanted to “silence her”.<\/p>\n
“There is plenty of evidence to suggest [Ms Beale] had been in a state of distress for hours\u2026 she had accused [Mr Beale] of assaulting her,” she said.<\/p>\n
The court also heard a DNA report had been finalised which allegedly determined Mr Beale’s profile may have been found underneath Ms Beale’s fingernail, and the pair may have engaged in sexual activity recently.<\/p>\n
Justice Patrick McCafferty KC reserved his decision to tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man accused of wanting to “silence” his former partner, whose body was found in the Brisbane River…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":757414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,17192,37647,106186,362284,2968,44,1049,37283],"class_list":["post-757413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bail","tag-brisbane-river","tag-crystal-beale","tag-jesse-wahlen-beale","tag-murder","tag-news","tag-supreme-court","tag-west-end"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}