Allison Baden-Clay's family break silence on murder downgrade

Friends and family of Alison Baden-Clay have expressed their shock at the decision to downgrade her husband's murder conviction to manslaughter, saying he has never expressed remorse or apologised for the crime.

On Tuesday the Queensland Court of Appeal downgraded Baden-Clay's conviction, a year after he was found guilty of murdering the mother of his three children.

Mrs Baden-Clay's cousin Jodie Dann said Allison's family had reacted to the news with "shock and disbelief".

"He stood up there and said he didn't do it. Now we’ve heard well, maybe he probably did, but it might have been an accident," she told the Courier Mail.

Mrs Baden-Clay disappeared from her home in the outer Brisbane suburb of Brookfield on April 20, 2012.

Her body was found by a kayaker in Kohlo Creek ten days later, several kilometres from the couple's home.

Ms Dann said as the family anxiously awaited news about Allison, Gerard Baden-Clay dealt with police through lawyers, who he had hired hours after reporting his wife missing.

She said that Baden-Clay "lied every step of the way" and had still not apologised to the family.

"He has never shown remorse. He has never shown anything except fear for himself," Ms Dann said.

Kerry-Anne Walker, who was a close friend of Allison, said she was also shocked and angered by the downgrading of Baden-Clay's murder charge but appreciated the outpouring of community support since the decision.

Gerard Baden-Clay will be resentenced early next year.