A former army major charged with killing his wife during a kayaking adventure claims they weren’t wearing life jackets because rats had eaten them.

New details emerged in court about the death on Lake Samsonvale, north of Brisbane, in November 2020, as Graeme Davidson made a bid for freedom.

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During a bail application in Brisbane Supreme Court on Friday, Defence Barrister Craig Eberhardt said it’s a “very circumstantial case that he might have killed her ... not that he did”.

The court heard Jacquelin Davidson drowned, and there was no evidence of substantial bruising or of a medical episode.

Davidson told police they had been kayaking for about three hours and listening to music, when she fell in and her foot became caught in weeds.

In another version, he referred to branches.

The 56-year-old also claimed they weren’t wearing life jackets because rats had eaten them.

The court heard the couple’s marriage had been strained, and Jacquelin had told a friend a year earlier she had spoken with her husband, raising the idea of divorce.

Eberhardt said there was “no evidence she said she was intending on leaving the marriage”.

“The conduct on the day of going out to the dam to have a nice day suggests there wasn’t any marital discord,” he said.

Davidson made a million-dollar life insurance claim.

Eberhardt argued that was a neutral piece of evidence.

“The fact they both had life insurance is unremarkable, if one person died, the mortgage would be covered.

“That’s sound financial planning.

“It would in fact be more suspicious if he didn’t claim on that.”

Davidson was seen burning documents in his backyard, but there was no evidence of what they contained.

About four months after his wife’s death, Davidson moved to Thailand and later remarried.

His defence counsel told the court that “while salacious”, it was irrelevant.

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.

Davidson allegedly commented: “I’d kill her and move to Thailand too.”

A comment which is “not that sinister” in context, his lawyer argued, but rather unreliable hearsay.

A judge will decide whether to grant bail next Wednesday, after hearing submissions from the Prosecution.