Sydney balcony killer Simon Gittany loses appeal against murder conviction
Simon Gittany has lost his appeal against his 2013 murder conviction.
Gittany was convicted after he was found guilty of throwing Lisa Harnum from a Sydney balcony in 2011.
He is currently serving a minimum 18 years after he threw his fiancee to her death from the 15th-floor of their CBD apartment block overlooking Sydney's Hyde Park.
Gittany's lawyer says Crown witness was ‘unreliable’ during appeal
Gittany's secret life
During the trial the court heard Gittany was an abusive and controlling partner who monitored the former ballerina's text messages and movements with security cameras.
At the time of conviction, Supreme Court judge Lucy McCallum dismissed Gittany’s claims of innocence and found he killed Ms Harnum in a fit of rage.
"I'm confident to the point of actual persuasion that he maintained his rage, carried her over to the balcony and then dropped her over," she said.
Justice McCallum said Ms Harnum was likely in a "state of complete terror” during her last moments.
In 2014 Gittany's girlfriend Rachelle Louise, opened up in an explosive new interview with Sunday Night saying she 'knows' her boyfriend is innocent.
"I know Simon. He is an honest person. He does not lie to me about anything. He has been completely transparent and honest with me," she said at the time.
She admitted CCTV video showing Gittany drag Harnum back into his apartment just 69 seconds before she was killed was "horrifying", but said Gittany was just "acting instinctively" and trying to stop her from running away.
The Sunday Night investigation also revealed a telephone call in which Harnum is heard trying to placate Gittany's control and rage.
"I am not having a go at you,'' she says in the recording of the phone call," to which Gittany replies: "We can do this nicely or we could do it a different way."
"I always wait at home for you," Harnum pleaded.
"Like, I don't go anywhere. I don't do anything without your permission, without asking, without you being OK with everything, and I don't do anything other that what it is you tell me to do. Nothing."
The Sunday Night investigation also revealed the heartbreaking text message exchange between Lisa Harnum's mother, Joan, and Gittany on the morning she was killed.
"Let me speak to Lisa. Simon. Why are you doing this? Please let me talk to her or let her come home," the flurry of desperate, unanswered text messages from Joan Harnum to Gittany reads.
"Please let me know if she is OK. If you believe in God, Simon, please let me talk to Lisa.. this is a mother begging for her child."
If you are a victim of domestic violence, find help by calling the national White Ribbon hotline on 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732).
