THE second man believed to have fled Australia after the 1995 death of model Caroline Byrne at a notorious Sydney suicide spot has been confirmed by The Australian as Gary Redding.

Police are still trying to speak to the former tattooist, who may have been a witness to Byrne’s death at TheGap in Sydney’s east.

After the incident, Mr Redding, an associate in the late 1990s of the now disgraced stockbroker Rene Rivkin, fled Australia, travelling first to New Zealand and then to Britain.

He is reported to have been tracked to New Zealand, where he agreed to be interviewed by Sydney detectives, but had subsequently disappeared.

Earlier this month The Australian reported that a brief of evidence prepared by NSW police recommended charging former Rivkin chauffeur Gordon Wood with murder. The brief was sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions on March 9.

It is understood not to mention Mr Redding, who was an acquaintance of Mr Wood’s.

But police are reported to believe the heavily tattooed Mr Redding, a former partner in the Sydney tattoo shop Skins and Needles, was also present at The Gap on the night Byrne died.

A police spokesman said last night that Taskforce Irondale, set up to investigate Byrne’s death, would not make any more statements on the issue.

Officers from the taskforce are understood to be upset that the contents of the brief of evidence were leaked to The Australian, which ran a front-page story on the preparation of charges against Mr Wood and which subsequently tracked him down to the skiing village of Megeve in France.

NSW Premier Bob Carr said last week he believed there was a prima facie case for extraditing Mr Wood.

Credit: Caroline Byrne