{"id":323343,"date":"2025-08-06T19:57:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T19:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/323343\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T19:57:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T19:57:10","slug":"scots-soldier-charged-with-murdering-wife-during-kayak-trip-seeking-bail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/323343\/","title":{"rendered":"Scots soldier charged with murdering wife during kayak trip seeking bail"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former Scottish army major\u00a0who has been charged with killing his wife during a kayaking trip on a lake is seeking bail. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Graeme Davidson was arrested and charged in May with the murder of his wife, Jacqueline, who drowned during a kayaking trip at Lake Samsonvale in November 2020.<\/p>\n

He has since launched a bail application in which the 56-year-old claims they weren\u2019t wearing life jackets because rats had eaten them.<\/p>\n

He is further accused of fraud offences over claims on his wife\u2019s life insurance policies worth more than $1 million following what police originally determined to be an accidental death.<\/p>\n

Davidson applied for bail in the Supreme Court last week, with a hearing continuing in Brisbane on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Lake death<\/p>\n

During a bail application in the Brisbane Supreme Court, defence barrister Craig Eberhardt said it\u2019s a \u201cvery circumstantial case that he might have killed her \u2026 not that he did\u201d.<\/p>\n

The couple were kayaking on the lake when police were told the woman had fallen into the water and drowned.<\/p>\n

She was brought back to shore, where bystanders and paramedics attempted to revive her by performing CPR.<\/p>\n

Jacqueline was pronounced dead at the scene, and it was ruled there was no evidence of substantial bruising or of a medical episode.<\/p>\n

Police allege Davidson\u2019s motive was linked to his attempts to collect life insurance claims following his wife\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Court documents now reveal that he claimed a $264,000 life insurance payout just 18 days after Jacqueline\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Davidson was seen burning documents in his back garden following his wife\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

At the bail application on Wednesday, the Brisbane Supreme Court also heard Davidson had texted a friend while living in Thailand, where he had moved and remarried after his wife drowned.<\/p>\n

The Crown has a witness statement recalling a conversation about three-and-a-half years prior to the alleged murder, about a man whose wife left him, moving to Thailand and taking part of his pension.<\/p>\n

Davidson allegedly commented: \u201cI\u2019d kill her and move to Thailand too.\u201d<\/p>\n

A comment which is \u201cnot that sinister\u201d in context, his lawyer argued, but rather unreliable hearsay.<\/p>\n

Detectives believe that a breakdown in the couple\u2019s relationship may have contributed to the incident.<\/p>\n

The court previously heard Davidson had an affair in 2019, and Ms Davidson had confided in a friend about wanting to separate from him.<\/p>\n

He remains in custody, and Justice Sullivan will decide on Friday whether to grant bail to Davidson.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"WhatsApp<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Scottish army major\u00a0who has been charged with killing his wife during a kayaking trip on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-323343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114983590017086441","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}