Martin Karen S2651262 Homicide Case Study-Simon Gittany PDF

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Simon Gittany Murder Case What type of person was he?...

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Criminology and Criminal Justice CCJ 114 CCJ114_2203_OT Assessment number 1 Karen Martin Student # S2651262 Course Convenor: Dr Dean Biron Tutor Name: Emily Waters Tutorial Group: Deans Group Word Count excluding cover page and reference listing 1598

Question 1 The Concise Australian Legal Dictionary 4th edition, at page 278, defines homicide as “the killing, whether lawfully or unlawfully, of one human being by another.” In this particular case, R V Gittany [2013] NSWSC 1737, the type of homicide featured is intimate partner homicide. To expand on the meaning from the Concise Australian Legal Dictionary, intimate partner homicide is the homicide of a spouse, ex-spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend. Simon Gittany was sentenced to a term of 26 years, with a non-parole period of 18 years following a judge-alone trial, for the killing of his fiancé, Lisa Cecilia Harnum (AustLII R v Gittany [2013] NSWSC 1737) Question 2 At the time of the offence, Simon Gittany was 38 years old (AustLii). Mr Gittany was born in Lebanon but immigrated to Australia at an early age and was brought up in Sydney, one of 6 children (Free Simon, n.d). He grew up in a stable and secure home (Free Simon, n.d), but after completing his HSC he struggled to find secure employment. At the age of 18, he was confronted by an employer for harassing an ex-girlfriend and was subsequently convicted of assaulting the employer causing grievous bodily harm (Thomas Oriti, 2013). To escape a full-time custodial sentence for an earlier crime, Mr Gittany claimed that he converted to Catholicism by joining Catholic order in France, where he planned on training to become a priest (Business Insider, 2013). In 1993 he is said to have injected himself with a syringe full of blood infected with hepatitis to avoid getting weekend detention. In 1994, while being arrested for possession of stolen goods, he bit the ear of the arresting officer (Ralston, 2013). When he was arrested for the murder of Ms Harnum, Mr Gittany owned a women’s shoe business which imported women’s shoes from the United States. The court psychologist, Ms Anna Robillard (AustLii, 2014), conducted mental health checks on Mr Gittany and found no existing related issues. The Crown prosecutor, Mark Tedeschi, reported that the relationship between Mr Gittany and Ms Harnum was “controlling and abusive” (Partridge, 2019). Question 3 Between 1 July 2010 and 30 June 2014, there were 152 intimate partner homicides in Australia that followed an identifiable history of domestic violence (ANROWS, 2019). The majority of these homicides, 121 cases or 80%, involves a man killing his female intimate partner, and had been the primary domestic violence abuser against their partner prior to killing her (ANROWS, 2019). Getting direct evidence about the thoughts of abusers and men who murder an intimate partner is filled with obstacles ranging from a total refusal to discuss the violence to hesitation to discuss clearly related motivations, plans/desires and ways of thinking. Both abusers and murderers will usually offer shortened versions of the violence and the story usually begins at a point that implicates the victim, reducing or eliminating their own culpability (Adams, 2007; Dobash & Dobash, 1979; Dobash, Dobash Cavanagh, & Lewis. 1998, 2000). Despite claiming a “loss of control,” men cited very clear objectives for their use of violence: silencing her; punishing her for “wrongdoings”; frightening her into behaving as he demands; and teaching her a lesson (Dobash & Dobash).

Adams, (2007) interviewed 31 men convicted of murdering their intimate partners and found them to be self centered and rigid in their attitudes. They blamed their partners for the violence. He concluded that ‘controlling, abusive and violent behaviour usually escalated over time and was evident in a vast majority of cases. Among most of the men he found strong notions of ownership, possessiveness and jealousy, even though a sense of “ownership” was denied’ (Adams, 2007). Using material from 121 homicide files between 1985-1986, (Polk, 1994; Polk & Ransom, 1991) found that about one third of the cases involved an intimate, sexual relationship. He concluded that for those where the woman was killed, there was usually a history of violence and jealousy toward those women. He also characterised that these homicides arose from “masculine possession” and “sexual ownership” (Polk, 1994). The vast majority of offenders were found to have been born in Australia as compared to offenders born overseas (Carcach C & James M 1998). Research shows that impulsive acts of offenders causing death is 41.4% and that a large majority of intimate partner homicide, in fact 92% in Australia, involves the use of a weapon (Ramsey, 2015). In the case of Simon Gittany, he had had multiple prior convictions for violence, and at least one for harassing a former girlfriend. It was mentioned several times during his trial that Mr Gittany was jealous, possessive and rigid in his control over Ms Harnum (R v Gittany). He had isolated her from all of her friends, including her mother, who was a resident of Toronto, Ontario, Canada (AustLii, 2014). He had installed software on her phone to monitor all of her phone calls and text messages (AustLii, 2014). He had also installed cameras in the apartment that they shared as well as at the entrance so that he could monitor her comings and goings (AustLii, 2014). Question 4 Lisa Cecilia Harnum was 30 years old at the time of her murder (Mountfield, 2015). She grew up in Toronto, Ontario in Canada (Webster & Leeder, 2019). As a little girl, she would play football and practice karate moves with her older brother, whom she adored (Webster & Leeder, 2019). From the age of 3 until she was 16 years old, she studied dance, tap, jazz and ballet (Webster & Leeder, 2019). She competed all over Canada and the US (Webster & Leeder 2019). At some point in her teens she became intensely conscious of body image and developed an eating disorder (Webster & Leeder, 2019). Ms Harnum struggled with this on and off for the rest of her life (Webster & Leeder, 2019). One of her friends, Jenny Romano, said that her “super fun” friend was attracted to older men that “could take care of her” (Webster & Leeder 2019). Ms Romano was of the opinion that it was because Ms Harnum’s mother Joan had struggled being a single mum (Webster & Leeder, 2019). Question 5 The Australian Institute of Criminology (1998) shows that the victim characteristics for intimate partner homicide from 1 July 1989 to 30 June 1996 were as follows: 75.3% were females, of which 67.2% were born in Australia. A vast majority, 70%, were Caucasian and 57.7% of them were not working at the time of the incident. The mean age in years was 34 years (Carcach & James, 1998). The majority of the incidents, 63.2% related to a domestic altercation and occurred in the offender or the victim’s home (Carcach & James, 1998).

In relation to Lisa Harnum, the above relates very closely to her. Although she was born overseas and was younger than the mean age, it is not unrealistic to expect that all intimate partner homicides with correlate exactly to all statistics presented. “Intimate partner homicide is the most serious form of domestic violence” (Carcach & James), and is usually the result of domestic conflicts that have escalated over a relatively long period of time. They are usually unplanned and a consequence of an event or events that escalate very quickly (Silverman & Kennedy, 1993). Question 6 There were many warning signs that led up to Ms Harnum’s murder. Mr Gittany was very controlling, forcing Ms Harnum to cut off all of her friends and family so that she only has him in her life (AustLii, 2014). It was highlighted during his trial that Mr Gittany has stalked Ms Harnum, by way of surveillance cameras in the home and software on her phone (AustLii, 2014). Even when he was absent from the home, Mr Gittany knew her every move (AustLii, 2014). Ms Harnum had alerted her mother and her personal trainer that she was frightened and had intimated that she was leaving the relationship (AustLii, 2014). It was clear that Mr Gittany had a history of violent behaviours, including the stalking and harassment of a former girlfriend (Thomas Oriti, 2013). Mr Gittany has also made threats to Ms Harnum’s counsellor, Michelle Richmond (Karl Hoerr, 2013). Ms Richmond told the court, at Mr Gittany’s trial, that he had “threatened to harm her if she contacted Ms Harnum again” (Karl Hoerr, 2013). Ms Richmond stated that the telephone call had been “a monologue of abuse” (Karl Hoerr, 2013). Question 7 The Cambridge Dictionary defines the word ‘guardian’ as someone who protects something (Cambridge Dictionary, 2020). There were several guardians in this case, but sadly Mr Gittany had made sure that Ms Harnum had severed ties with everyone in her life (AustLii, 2014). He had isolated Ms Harnum to the point where she really only saw her personal trainer, Lisa Brown, in the home, where she had to choose her words carefully due to the surveillance that Mr Gittany had installed (AustLii, 2014). There was also her life coach, Michelle Richmond, who was warned against seeing Ms Harnum (Karl Hoerr, 2013). Mr Gittany threatened Ms Richmond with harm if she contacted Ms Harnum again (AustLii, 2014). Ms Richmond said that she took Mr Gittany’s threats against her life seriously, as he knew where she lived (Karl Hoerr, 2013). Ms Harnum’s mother had offered to come to Australia only a few days prior to Ms Harnum’s death (Webster & Leeder, 2019). Ms Harnum had asked her mother to come and take her home to Canada (Webster & Leeder, 2019). Ms Harnum also called her mother the morning of her death, indicating that she was in fear of Mr Gittany (AustLii, 2014).

References (2020). Cambridge Dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/ AustLII - New South Wales Resources. (2020). Retrieved 10 July 2020, from https://www.austlii.edu.au/au/nsw/

Carcach, C., & James, M. (1998). Homicide between Intimate Partners in Australia. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. Retrieved 1 July 2020 Dobash, R., & Dobash, R. (2010). What Were They Thinking? Men Who Murder an Intimate Partner. Violence Against Women, 17(1), 111-134. doi: 10.1177/1077801210391219 Retrieved 4 July 2020 Hoerr, K. (2013). ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). Retrieved 3 July 2020, from https://www.abc.net.au/news/ Mountfield, A. Lisa Harnum Foundation. Retrieved 1 July 2020, from https://www.lisahf.org.au/ Oriti, T. (2013). Murderer Simon Gittany's violent and drug-dealing past revealed. Retrieved 1 July 2020, from https://www.abc.net.au/news/ Partridge, E. (2019). Video reveals the moments before Lisa Harnum died, and what Simon Gittany did next. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 1 July 2020 from http://smh.com.au The Facts About Intimate Partner Homicide. (2018). Retrieved 4 July 2020, from https://www.anrows.org.au/ Webster, D., & Leeder, J. (2019). Mommy, I Just Want You To Know That I Love You With All My Heart. Marie Claire. Retrieved 7 July 2020 from http://marieclaire.com.au Adams, D. (2007) Why Do They Kill: Men who murder their intimate partners. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press Retrieved July 4 2020. Polk, K. (1994). When men kill: Scenarios of masculine violence. New York: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved July 4 2020. Polk, K., & Ranson, D. (1991) The role of gender in intimate homicide. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 24, 15-24. Retrieved July 4 2020. Ralston, N. (2013). Simon Gittany went from petty criminal who bit policeman's ear to highflyer. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au/national/ nsw Thomsen, S. (2014). Simon Gittany Has Been Sentenced To 26 Years For The Murder Of His Girlfriend. Business Insider Australia. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com.au/category/simon-gittany...