Gittany exclusive: Rachelle Louise reveals many fights with Simon
FIRST ON 7: The girlfriend of balcony-killer Simon Gittany has revealed how he stopped her from leaving their apartment and admits they had many fights.
But, in an exclusive interview with Seven's Sunday Night, Rachelle Louise explains why she believes Gittany is innocent.
For months, Rachelle Louise has been firmly in the media spotlight, constantly seen, but rarely heard.
This weekend, that will change as she tells her story.
Simon Gittany a 'cold and calculating killer', sentencing hearing told
Prosecutor said Gittany's intention all along was to make Lisa's death look like suicide
"Has he ever stopped you from leaving the apartment like he did with Lisa?" journalist Ross Coulthart asked.
"He's never stopped me like physically restrained me from leaving, but he's stopped me from leaving like, stood at the door," Louise replied.
She firmly believes her boyfriend did not throw former fiancee Lisa Harnum to her death, and insists he has never been violent towards her, but reveals they do argue.
"I know that he doesn't like to leave me to leave the apartment so I purposely said I'm leaving the apartment, and he was like no you're not leaving and I said yes I am."
Sunday Night's Ross Coulthart said he was surprised by the real Rachelle Louise, and suggests viewers might be too.
"She's a whip smart young lady so she basically gives her analysis of why she believes the evidence suggesting her partner's guilt is wrong," Coulthart said.
Sunday Night has also spoken to Lisa Harnum's mother Joan, who recalls frightening text messages leading up to her death.
"You ask her if everything's okay and she replies 'same as usual, walking time bombs, any minute boom, explosions'".
The program looks into a chapter of Gittany's life spent at an isolated seminary in France for eighteen months - an exercise in hardship that may have prepared him for a lengthy stint in prison.
