The homicide featured in the Simon Gittany case is Domestic Homicide. This is when violence is made by a single person towards another person that are in a domestic setting such as marriage or cohabitation. Domestic homicides are sub-classified against categories such as Intimate Partner – this can be when the victim and the offender are a current or former partner (married, defacto, boy/girlfriend). 23% of domestic homicide victims have been recorded in the NHMP since 1 July 2003.
Simon Gittany now aged 45 in 2018, resided in western Sydney suburbs.
The offender began living at home with his mother and unemployed only to become a high-flying business man importing shoes and moving to a lavish luxury apartment in the Sydney City. Gittany has had multiple run ins with police when he was younger, Gittany was sentenced to two and half years in prison, 1995, after biting the ear of a senior detective while being arrested for stolen items. 1993 police had found various number of stolen goods in the back in Simon Gittany’s vehicle.
Police later discovered all stolen items belonged to a female victim that lived in a nearby area of Harris Park, NSW.
Gittany become violent towards officers in his family home when officers attempted to arrest Gittany, leading him to bite and sever the ear of Detective Senior Keith Bristow as well as attacking another officer Constable David Burgess. Documents in court also report that at the time of arrest Gittany’s mother also attacked Constable Burgess. In 2000, the offender Gittany aged 27, was once again in trouble with the law.
Simon Gittany was sentenced to three years periodic detention until August 2004/ charged with drugs supply. Once Gittany was released from prison Gittany become involved with more honest pursuits in life. Gittany Started a women’s shoe importation business, that ran the website ShoeCandy. It is then he decided to move in with fianc?e Lisa Harnum into a 15th floor apartment in Sydney CBD. Gittany’s partner decided to quit the business in 2011, three months after Gittany threw his fianc?e of their apartment balcony.
An offender’s characteristics are similar to the general pattern in offenders who commit domestic homicide. Domestic homicide is when violence is made by a single person towards another person’s that are in a domestic setting, this could be a marriage or cohabitation. In the Simon Gittany and Lisa Harnum Case it is clear that Simon Gittany’s characteristics are similar to other offenders that commit Domestic homicide. Once Gittany and Harnum began their relationship it starts with Gittany showing common but small signs of a controlling man. Domestic violence expert, Tracy Howe explains “Sabotaging his partner so she cannot work is common tactic. They will do it in various ways – phone you all the time, make you stay home because he feels sick and you have to look after him, make it hard for you to go to work. As soon as they get you out of the workplace, then they go to town.” Simon Gittany had made sure that the young Canadian victim had no friends or family to turn to as well as monitoring her text messages and watching her through surveillance cameras hidden around their apartment.
Victim Lisa Harnum was 30 years of age when she died tragically by the hands of her fianc?e Simon Gittany in 2013. Ms Harnum was Canadian born and lived with mother Joan and brother Jason 39. It is reported that Lisa endured a life of bullying, not only as a child in school but as an adult as well (Joan Harnum, 2019, para 6). As a teenager Harnum suffered from eating disorders, however was able to push through to make herself get better. 2004 Lisa decided to quit her job in Toronto, Canada and move to Australia on a 12-month work visa. By January 2005 mother Joan and Lisa Cecilia Harnum arrived in Melbourne, VIC, to see what Melb was like. May 2005, Lisa had got herself a job and started working in Sydney at a cosmetic company and soon became in a relationship with a colleague 20 years her senior.
Harnum relationship soon ended after getting engaged due to their age difference playing a part. In early 2010 had met and befriended Simon Gittany, the relationship was purely platonic until 2 months later their relationship took a romantic turn, it is then that Gittany urged Harnum to quit her job that she had at a hairdressing salon and to look for a “better class of people.” It is by September 2010 Gittany and Harnum sign the lease to their lavish apartment in Sydney CBD and it is at this same point of time that Gittany starts to isolate Harnum from her friends as well as hacking into her Facebook and emails. Surveillance cameras were put in and outside the apartment as well as Harnum believing that Gittany was able to monitor all calls and text messages from her phone.
Lisa Harnum’s characteristics match the general pattern to other victims in domestic violence or domestic homicides. Most victims of domestic violence/homicide can suffer from a loss of self-confidence and tend to constantly live in fear of their spouse. There a times when the victims do not leave the abuse as they may depend on the offender financially, feel that they have no one to turn to for help or just feel that they have no self-worth (New York Behavioural Health, para 4).
When Lisa Harnum, 30, became in a relationship with Simon Gittany, 45, Gittany became very obsessive over Harnum’s life. Just before Harnum’s 29th birthday Gittany had asked for Harnum to quit her job at the hairdressing salon and made the statement to Harnum to look for “a better class of people”.
In September 2010 Simon had begun cutting Harnum off from her friends and social life, Gittany had gone as far as hacking into Lisa’s email account which is where he began to then delete any emails friend other men. Harnum’s friends then started going missing from her friends list on Facebook. The pair then stopped making appearances at night clubs as Simon Gittany did not like the attention Lisa would receive from other males in the club. 18 months into the relationship the offender decided to propose to Harnum on her 30th birthday, claiming that he had finally found someone to “serve” him.
Before Lisa found out about her Fianc?e Simon Gittany monitoring her emails and test messages, Lisa had confided in two ladies from Sydney, as well as her mother Joan. It is these two women that Lisa felt safe enough to open up and explain to them about what was really going on in her relationship with Gittany. Gittany allowed her access to only these two women which were outside of his family. Harnum’s personal trainer Lisa Brown and Life coach Michelle Richmond were told by the young victim that the offender had disconnected her from her friends, dictated what she was to wear as well as where she went and with whom she spoke. Personal Trainer Lisa Brown had referred the victim to life coach Michelle Richmond as there was a sense that not all was right with the victim. After months of talking and opening up to Richmond, Harnum had finally seen what her new normal was tuning out to be like with Gittany being controlling and obsessive. It is then that Richmond tells Harnum about support services and what her legal rights were if she chose to leave and, given Gittany’s dominating ways, Richmond attempted to try help Harnum in the safest way possible. With the help of the only two people who knew the truth behind Harnum and Gittany’s relationship, Brown then started to secretly help Harnum move her things from the Apartment, and into a storage unit based in Bondi.
Unfortunately, mother of victim Joan Harnum was on the other side of the world in Toronto Canada, when she started to receive phone calls and text messages explaining Harnum’s want and need of returning home back to Canada. The victim whispered urgently “Mommy, I just want you to know that I love you and Jason with all my heart.,” she whispered frantically. “If anything happens to me, please contact Michelle.” Lisa insisted her mother note down the details for Michelle Richmond, the life coach in whom she had been confiding in.
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