Socialite murder case trial begins

BRISBANE socialite Maureen Boyce’s jilted lover drove a kitchen knife so far through her stomach it impaled her to a bed after he flew into a jealous rage, a court has heard.

Thomas Chris Lang said he found the 68-year-old former model pinned to her bed in what he claimed was a grisly suicide scene at her luxury Brisbane penthouse on October 22, 2015, but police allege he was the killer. The New Zealandbased doctor pleaded not guilty to murder when his trial began in the Brisbane Supreme Court yesterday, and for the first time details were revealed of the pair’s complicated relationship that spanned decades and may have resulted in a child.

Crown prosecutor David Meredith told the jury Mrs Boyce was involved with Lang in the 1980s while she was modelling in the US, where he was a young doctor in Texas.

He said she returned to Australia to be with her husband Dr Graham Boyce, who has been working as a GP in Cairns, but she gave birth to her son Zachary in 1981 and later claimed he belonged to Lang.

The pair rekindled their relationship in 2013, while Lang was working in New Zealand. He was visiting Mrs Boyce when she was found early on October 22, with a kitchen knife through her stomach.

Mr Meredith alleged that Lang brutally murdered Mrs Boyce after he realised she would not leave her husband and saw a text message from a third man on her phone.

“He then, in a jealous rage, stabs Maureen Boyce four or five times in the stomach,” he said.

Lang’s defence barrister Tony Glynn QC said Lang “lost control of his life” after phoning Triple 0 to report Ms Boyce’s death and urged the jury to keep an open mind.

More than 40 witnesses are expected to give evidence over two weeks.