Balcony killer Simon Gittany loses appeal against conviction for murdering Lisa Harnum
BALCONY killer Simon Gittany has lost his appeal against his conviction for the murder of his fiancee Lisa Harnum.
BALCONY killer Simon Gittany has lost his appeal against his conviction for the murder of his fiancee Lisa Harnum.
The unanimous decision by the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal this morning — following a hearing two months ago — means the minimum 18 year jail term imposed on Gittany will stand.
The now 42-year-old threw 30 year old Ms Harnum from the 15th storey balcony of their Sydney CBD apartment on the morning of July 30, 2011 upon discovering her plans to leave him and return to her family in Canada.
CCTV footage showed Gittany dragging Ms Harnum back inside their apartment 69 seconds before she plunged to her death.
He was found guilty by Justice Lucy McCallum, who heard the trial without a jury and said in a comprehensive 175 page judgment that she was satisfied Gittany had “unloaded” Ms Harnum “over the edge” of the balcony as “there is not a doubt in my mind that he was in a state of rage at that point and had lost control of his temper.”
Gittany’s appeal centred on the claim that the trial’s eye witness Joshua Rathmell, who observed the unloading of Ms Harnum’s body form the balcony as he walked to work through Hyde Park, should have been considered unreliable.
Mr Rathmell told the court during his evidence that he saw “a shirtless man screaming ... and then unloading an object from the balcony”.
Justice McCallum touched on the importance of his evidence — as the only person put forward as an “eyewitness” in the Crown case — and said that, if she’d harboured reasonable doubt about his statements, she would have to acquit Gittany.
She said that Mr Rathmell had given “a careful, compelling account, descriptive of a deliberate act of unloading an object over the railing of the balcony.”
“I do not entertain a reasonable doubt about the accuracy or reliability of the evidence of Mr Rathmell,” she said.
Gittany’s appeal counsel Stephen Odgers SC told the panel of three justices that Rathmell’s evidence was “infected with doubt” and that “there is a question mark about his memory.”
The defence at trial had called an expert psychologist, Dr Richard Kemp, to tell the court of a memory condition often triggered after witnessing a traumatic event, but Justice McCallum said in her judgment that the expert’s opinion “have not shaken my assessment of Mr Rathmell as a reliable witness.”
In submissions regarding the appeal, the Crown said Gittany’s appeal “simply attacks” the assessment of the trial judge, and should be dismissed.
The Crown submitted to the appeal that no “change in story had been demonstrated that well give rise” to the unreliability appeal ground.
Gittany, who was sentenced to a total term of 26 years, did not come up on the court video link screen to hear the appeal decision.
His only remaining avenue of appeal would be a difficult High Court challenge.
Originally published as Balcony killer Simon Gittany loses appeal against conviction for murdering Lisa Harnum
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