A court in Sydney found Australian businessman Simon Gittany guilty of murdering his fiancée Lisa Harnum, who was thrown from the 15th floor of a luxury apartment in the city in 2011.
According to a report in the Guardian, Gittany stood “stock still and his girlfriend Rachelle Louise started screaming” before she was forcibly removed from the courtroom as the presiding judge read the verdict on Wednesday.
Justice Lucy McCallum stated that Gittany succumbed to an “uncontrollable” fit of rage after discovering that his fiancée was planning to leave him. The judge went on to lambaste the defendant’s alibi and claims that Harnum committed suicide, saying Gittany’s account “lacked originality and the subtlety of actual experience.”
Following the verdict, Harnum’s mother admitted to reporters that despite the conviction there were still no winners in the case. “Two families have had their lives dramatically changed forever,” Joan Harnum said outside the courtroom, reported the Sydney Morning Herald.
[SMH]