Alleged mum killer’s home bugged by cops
An investigator has told the WA Supreme Court the home of alleged mum killer Andre Rebelo and his former partner model Grace Piscopo was bugged by police.
Former WA Police detective Warren Jacobs gave evidence in the murder trial of Mr Rebelo, who is accused of killing his mother Colleen Rebelo on May 25, 2020, an allegation he has denied.
Mr Jacobs told the court that police were issued a warrant to use listening devices in the bedroom of Mr Rebelo’s Beaconsfield home and an optical and audio recording device downstairs.
The devices were installed in the house from September 9, 2020 until December 7, 2020.
Mr Jacobs confirmed to defence lawyer Anthony Elliott the devices were installed to see if there was any discussion between Mr Rebelo, Ms Piscopo and any other people relevant to a fraud inquiry.
Mr Elliott put to Mr Jacobs that even though the offence was described as fraud, the officers listened out for discussions about insurance, fraud, Ms Rebelo, death, murder and anything that could be sensibly connected with those things.
“Yes,” Mr Jacobs replied.
A video of a police search conducted at the home of Mr Rebelo and his former partner Ms Piscopo was played in the court.
Only Mr Rebelo and his son were home when police knocked on the door about 10am on September 16, 2020.
WA Police Constable Nicholas Peak, an auxiliary officer at the time who attended the search, told the court police were there to seize computers, modems, routers, hard drives, CCTV and any documentation or bank statements related to Ms Piscopo and Mr Rebelo.
During the search Mr Rebelo asks Detective Sergeant Laurence Barron how long his computers and mobile phone would be seized for.
“What about the ones that belong to my partner?” he asked the detective.
“Do you take phones as well? How do I live my life now?” and “How will it be examined? Is there a timeframe?”
The detective in charge told Mr Rebelo his phone has been seized by police and he could no longer answer it, and all the times found at the property including those that belonged to Ms Piscopo were being seized, video showed the court.
He said they would be returned after police examined the contents.
“I know it is an imposition on your life, but it is part of our business,” the detective tells Mr Rebelo.
“Anything that is in this house will be seized and will be examined.
“I can’t tell how long it will take because we don’t know what’s on them, whether it is a day or a month I have no idea.”
The court was shown a video of a police interview with Mr Rebelo on the day his home was searched in which he tells officers about his role in his former girlfriend’s social media business.
During the interview officers told Mr Rebelo he was under arrest for attempted fraud and forgery.
“What do you pay in rent?” an officer asked.
“$880 a week so $1740 a fortnight,” Mr Rebelo replied.
“Oh wow, it is a nice place,” said one of the officers.
Mr Rebelo told officers he worked with his partner Ms Piscopo in her social media business and assisted her with management and content creation.
“It’s a weird thing to describe,” he said.
“It is social media marketing and influencing, I guess you could say content creating, but it is social media marketing.”
“What do you actually do?” one of the officers asked.
“Work with brands promoting them and negotiating with brands that wish to promote stuff,” Mr Rebelo said.
“That is Grace’s business, but you help?” an officer asked him.
“Yes, it is her business,” Mr Rebelo replied
“It is on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok recently.
“Our target audience is fashion, make up and accessories, and things of that nature, I would say my role is an assistant manager I negotiate with deals and things and create content.
“It is a team effort I guess.”
Mr Rebelo told the officers they worked about six or seven hours a day and at odd hours during the night “in between eating.”
He said they were paid through a media management company which paid Ms Piscopo or were paid directly from brands earning about $171,000 a year.
“Do you have enough to cover your expenses?” an officer asked.
“Yeah,” Mr Rebelo replied.
He told the officers he had a credit card debt but banks had been “horrible” about lending money after the Royal Commission.
He told the officers they had personal assets like furniture, bags and crypto currency, but crypto was hard to define because it went up and down all the time, and a Range Rover eVouque they had bought on finance.
A detective told the court that Mr Rebelo googled “coroner’s aneurysm causes” and “inquest” after his mother’s death.
The court was told police discovered Mr Rebelo had taken out three life insurance policies against his mother in the week before she died in which he stood to gain $1.15m from her death.
Three days after she died, he started the claims process to gain money from premiums.
One of the insurers suspected the claim was fraudulent and reported it to police.
Mr Rebelo had submitted forged copies of a medical certificate from his mother’s psychologist, her last will and testament along with a fake copy of a coroner’s report into her death.
He was charged with fraud in October 2020 and later charged with murder in November 2022.
He declared bankruptcy on March 31, 2022.
Mr Rebelo pleaded guilty to forgery but has denied killing his mother.
Police were initially investigating a fraud complaint but started suspecting Mr Rebelo murdered his mother about October 1, 2020.
Sergeant Bragg said he was briefed about the case on August 31, 2020 and started investigations, but because three months had lapsed since Ms Rebelo had died, police were unable to obtain any evidence from CCTV footage.
He told the court that 16 days later police searched Ms Rebelo’s home where her children Monique and Fabian were at the time, with police seizing laptops and mobile phones from the home.
He said her children were taken to the Fremantle Police Station to give statements.
Sergeant Bragg told the court that a search was also carried out at Mr Rebelo’s home on the same day. Police seized computers and laptops and took him in for questioning.
“Andre was interviewed later that evening about this incident, he was taken into custody and arrested that day,” Sergeant Bragg said.
“I went back to the homicide squad office and took Andre back to the watch house, I believe he was bailed.
“He was charged with attempted fraud, five other forgery offences and released on bail.”
Detective Sergeant Jason Hutchinson told the court that he examined a computer used by Mr Rebelo and found activity from December 2019 to July 2020 had been removed, including internet search history.
He said there was also no chrome history prior to June 2020.
Sergeant Hutchinson told the court that he did find Google searches that were relevant to the case that included “coroner’s aneurysm causes”, “word doc assist” and “inquest”.
A computer mostly used by Ms Piscopo revealed photos of the couple with their son Romeo taken at 8.07am on the day Mr Rebelo’s mother died.
At 10.24am and 2pm, photos of Ms Piscopo were found on the computer. After 8.07am there were no photos of Mr Rebelo.
During the trial, the court has been told Mr Rebelo portrayed a glamorous lifestyle on social media with Ms Piscopo that was funded by credit cards and personal loans.
The jury was told Ms Piscopo was a successful model and social media influencer, but Mr Rebelo had lived beyond his means and was unable to repay his financial obligations.
Ms Piscopo is not accused of any wrongdoing.
WA Police financial crime squad investigator Darren Stammers investigated the couple’s financial records for a three-year period until June 2020.
The court was shown about a month after Ms Rebelo died, the couple had a combined debt of $121,000 and little money in their savings accounts.
Mr Rebelo was being pursued by debt collection agencies after he failed to make repayments on his credit card.
The prosecution argued that Mr Rebelo must have thought his world was closing in around him and led him to take out three life insurance policies against his mother.
State prosecutor Brett Tooker told the court that when premiums had to be paid and money started coming out of Mr Rebelo’s account, he had to act.
“Which is why five days later he killed his mother, then three days later started pursuing policies,” he told the court.
While Ms Rebelo’s death was sudden and unexpected, it was not treated as suspicious by first responders who attended her home.
Her cause of death has never been determined despite auxiliary testing performed at her autopsy.
The defence has argued traces of focal subendocardial interstitial fibrosis found on Ms Rebelo’s heart could have caused her to die suddenly from cardiac arrhythmia.
The trial continues.
