Type of Homicide
The following is a case study of Simon Gittany and the intended murder of Lisa Harnum. First it must be understood that murder is a reckless act with intent to kill or grievously injure another (NSW Criminal Code Act 1900). It is known that Ms Harnum was the fiancée of Gittany (R v Gittany, 2013) and, as mentioned by Carcach & James (1998), this is an example of Intimate partner homicide, a murder between two people in an intimate relationship. On the 30th of July, 2011, Lisa Harnum was unloaded from the 15th floor of “The Hyde” apartment building to her death. The case became very public and brought up much discussion over domestic violence in Australia and the dangers of it. Gittany’s guilty verdict, November …show more content…
According to the Ralston, (2013), Gittany had a violent childhood. In one incident he allegedly bit the ear of a detective after being caught with stolen goods. In a study done by the AIC between 2008 and 2010, 45% of offenders had a prior criminal history, (AIC, 2015). A factor in the anatomy of a homicide offender is the psychological features, such as jealousy and control, both of which Gittany displayed according to witness’ (R v Gittany, 2013).
Witnesses stated that the Ms Harnum confided to them that Gittany was very controlling; watching her with cameras and controlling whether she left the unit or worked. According to the witness Ms Harnum knew Gittany had been watching her emails, phone calls and messages (R v Gittany, 2013) apparently via a computer program he had installed (Marks 2013). …show more content…
The motives of prior battering, jealousy and separation all fall under the category of domestic violence or control and make up a significant amount of homicide statistics in New South Wales and Victoria (Easteal, 1993). Justice McCallum (R v Gittany, 2013) judged that Gittany had intent to kill or inflict grievous bodily harm on Ms Harnum and stated that unloading her from the 15th floor was could only have been acted out with intent. A witness had stated that Ms Harnum confided in her about her fiancé’s threat to kill her if she left him and that he would make it look like suicide (R v Gittany,