Simon Gittany Guilty
November 28, 2013 by staff
Simon Gittany Guilty, A man has been found guilty of throwing his fiancee off the balcony of their high-rise apartment in central Sydney.
Ms Harnum was planning to leave Gittany
Simon Gittany was accused of hurling Lisa Harnum from their 15th floor home in a fit of “apoplectic” rage in July 2011 after discovering she planned to leave him and return to her native Canada.
Gittany, 40, who was supported in court by his new girlfriend Rachelle Louise, had maintained throughout the trial that Ms Harnum, 30, had slipped and fallen after climbing over a railing.
He said he had tried to save Ms Harnum, a former ballerina.
But Justice Lucy McCallum said the lack of Ms Harnum’s fingerprints on the glass barrier made his claim implausible.
“At many times in his evidence, the accused struck me as being a person playing a role, telling a story which fitted with the objective evidence, but which did no more than that,” she said.
Gittany barely reacted in court as the verdict was read out.
Gittany with his new girlfriend, Rachelle Louise, who screamed at the judge
His current girlfriend screamed at the judge “You’re wrong”, and stormed out of the packed courtroom. Ms Louise’s outburst continued after she left the court.
Delivering the verdict in the judge-only trial, Justice McCallum said witness Josh Rathmell, who had been walking past the apartment building on his way to work when he saw Ms Harnum fall, gave a compelling account.
At the time, Mr Rathmell thought he had seen Gittany “unload” a piece of luggage or rubbish and continued on his way. It was only later he realised it was a body and contacted the police.
Justice McCallum said while Gittany and Ms Harnum had loved each other, there was no doubt the accused was “controlling, dominating and at times abusive”.
“I am satisfied by the end of July 2011, those tensions had reached a point of crisis,” she said.
Gittany and Ms Harnum’s apartment was in central Sydney
The New South Wales Supreme Court heard that Gittany had secretly monitored Ms Harnum’s phone and had installed CCTV cameras inside and outside their apartment.
One of the cameras showed Gittany restraining Ms Harnum outside the flat and then dragging her back inside on the night she died. Ms Harnum was heard yelling: “Please help me, help me, God help me.”
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