
This is the stunning girlfriend who
fell 15 storeys to her death, moments after being filmed grappling with
her 'controlling and abusive' fiancé.
Lisa
Harnum was allegedly heard yelling, 'please help me, God help me' as
she fought for her life on the balcony of the flat she shared with Simon
Gittany in Sydney, Australia, on the night of July 30 2011.
But nobody came. Moments later she was lying dead, her body 150-feet down on the footpath below.
And today it was revealed the
30-year-old's terrifying last moments were captured on the very pin-hole
camera Gittany set up to spy on her every
move.
Gittany, 37, has pleaded not guilty to murdering his Canadian-born fiancée, claiming he was trying to save her from suicide before she fell.
He has been regularly accompanied to his trial by his current girlfriend.
A neighbour, however, claims he saw a topless man 'fist-pumping' on the terrace after something had gone over the edge, 9News reported.
Another witness walking past
The Hyde apartment block in the heart of the city told police he saw a
topless man holding what appeared to be black luggage horizontally over
the balcony before it fell to earth.
'Of course, it was not a piece of
luggage, it was Miss Harnum wearing black clothing,' Crown prosecutor
Mark Tedeschi QC said today at Gittany's murder trial.
Gittany was so jealous, Mr Tedeschi claimed, that he had banned her from seeing friends,
forbade her from taking a job as a hairdresser and even hired a personal
trainer to come to their home so she wouldn't go to the gym where he
thought she would be ogled by other men.
Terror: His hand clamped over her mouth to stifle her 'bone-chilling'
screams for help, a shirtless Simon Gittany wrestles fiancee Lisa Harnam
- minutes before she plunged 15-storeys to her death. The footage was
captured on a pin-hole camera that he set up in the flat to spy on her
Describing Gittany as 'controlling and abusive', Tedeschi said he made her become Catholic, do her hair and dress exactly how he told her.
'[He believed] it was her function in life to submit to his will as the male in the relationship,' Mr Tedeschi said.
But his vice-like grip over her life was
still not enough, the court heard. Mr Tedeschi told jurors Gittany even
set up a network of mini cameras around the apartment to keep tabs on
her and secretly read her emails and text messages.
It was because of this forensic
campaign of surveillance that he caught wind of her plan to leave him
with the help of two friends, the court heard. As a result he allegedly
abused one of them over the phone, advising them to stay away.
In
the months leading up to her death, the court heard, Miss Harnum had
become so fearful of her fiancé's jealous rage that, when she did
venture outside, she only ever stared at the ground or into his eyes for
fear he might accuse her of looking at other men.
'The deceased's confidence became more and more diminished,' Mr Tedeschi said.
Giving evidence, Miss Harnum's
mother said told the court: 'She told me he was always very controlling
and wanted to always know where she was, what she was doing, who she was
with, what she was wearing.'
She
said when Miss Harnum plucked up the courage to tell Gittany she was
leaving him, he threatened to destroy her chances of getting permanent
Australian residency - a dream she had harboured since moving to the
country.
Gittany's defence barrister Philip
Strickland SC said Miss Harnum was a 'conflicted, complicated and
confused woman' prone to over-reacting when she didn't get her own way.
Mr
Strickland said Gittany only monitored her text messages via a computer
programme because she had told him she had a secret that she couldn't
disclose to him.
'The secret ate into their relationship,' he said
Her fingerprints were not found
on the glass or metal rail of the balcony onto which he said she climbed
before she fell.

Reign of fear: In the months leading up to her death, the court heard,
Miss Harnam had become so fearful of Gittany's jealous rage that, when
she did venture outside, she only ever stared at the ground or into his
eyes for fear he might accuse her of looking at other men
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