The death of Lisa Harnum at the hands of Simon Gittany in July 2011 gave the Australian media permission to talk more openly about domestic violence. As Amy Dale, author of The Fall and the former chief court reporter for The Daily Telegraph, explained in a 2020 episode of the Australian True Crime podcast, until this case, the press stayed away from these types of stories due to them being “personal.” It also highlighted an issue that is now widely spoken about in a lot of DV cases: coercive control.
Coercive control was a massive factor in the death of Hannah Clarke in early 2020. However, in the Lisa Harnum case, it was an enormous part of the story, but most people didn’t know this type of abuse had a name.
The Backstory Of Lisa Harnum
Lisa Cecilia Harnum was born to Joan Harnum in Canada. She had an older brother. In 2005, she arrived in Australia, wanting to build a life for herself. She studied hairdressing.
When she was looking for a flatmate, she met Simon Gittany. The relationship started as friendly before becoming romantic within a couple of weeks of meeting.
A year later, Simon Gittany proposed to Lisa Harnum at her 30th birthday party. All his family and friends were present. Hers were not.
The relationship from the get-go was hostile as Lisa had been in constant contact with her mother, updating her on what was happening.
Simon Gittany’s Abuse Was NOT Physical
Unlike many domestic violence cases, Lisa Harnum did not suffer physical violence from Simony Gittany until the day she died.
Simon was very controlling. He bugged her phone with spyware; he had CCTV cameras all over their apartment. Gittany was also paranoid about Lisa’s striking appearance and would control what she wore. According to Amy Dale, who was present at the court every day of the trial, photos showed how Ms Harnum’s dress sense changed drastically.
Lisa’s appearance alone set Simon off mentally. She could turn heads without even trying, so he had personal trainers train Lisa in the apartment away from the prying eyes of other men.
Essentially, she was a prisoner in her own home. Lisa could not do anything without Simon saying so. She did, however, confide in her two personal trainers, Michelle and Lisa (not to be confused with the victim), about what was going on. Gittany had personal trainers for Lisa because he wanted her to put on weight so she could potentially give him a child. He also threatened multiple times to have her visa revoked.
With the help of a small circle of people, Lisa moved things out of the apartment little by little and had them placed in storage. Joan, Lisa’s mother, had started looking at flights for Lisa so she could get back to Canada.
While Lisa was demanded to make a life for herself in Australia, she knew she had to escape her situation first, even if it meant putting her dream of getting citizenship on hold.
Exposing Simon Gittany
The Lisa Harnum case highlighted what a controlling narcissist Simon Gittany was. It exposed that he was willing to lie in court to get himself out of trouble. He claimed that Lisa was obsessed with spying on him as he was with doing the same to her. It also showed how envious Simon was of Lisa. He couldn’t accept that many men would find her attractive, so he banned her from going to a gym.
He was also exposed for having a criminal record before he met Lisa Harnum. Simon had assaulted a police officer.
Gittany also had a type when it came to girlfriends. During his trial, his new partner was Rachelle Louise, a woman in her 20s who looked strikingly like Lisa.
When the trial started, Louise was friendly to the press, but her attitude towards them changed as the tides turned against Simon. She blamed them for how he was being portrayed. Also, she believed he was innocent. She developed an obsession and founded a website called freesimon.info.
According to Nine News Australia, Rachelle Louise admitted that she was behind the Free Simon campaign. She even went to law school to prove he was innocent. She also attempted to use cases like the Lindy Chamberlain case as examples of why Gittany should be acquitted.
The Lindy Chamberlain Doesn’t Even Compare To Simon Gittany’s Murder Trial
The Lindy Chamberlain case was once classified as a murder case. If the disappearance of Azaria Chamberlain had happened today and she’d been convicted, it would have been classed as a family violence case.
Azaria Chamberlain, who wasn’t even two months old, was taken by Diego and never seen again. Lindy was charged with her daughter’s murder and later acquitted.
What happened to Azaria and Simon’s supposed innocence had nothing in common. There was circumstantial evidence in Lindy’s case. No one outside of Lindy saw what happened to her daughter. The eyewitness in Gittany’s murder trial is the reason why he wasn’t acquitted.
Even when Simon’s legal team attempted to argue in the appeal that he was an unreliable witness, they failed because he never wavered when questioned. Also, it was the only avenue they could use as it was a judge-only case, meaning there was no jury.
Moreover, one of the witnesses was one of the fingerprint experts who examined the glass of the balcony railing. The expert said that Lisa’s fingerprints were not on the glass, but Simon’s were. Furthermore, this pulled Gittany’s version of events apart because he claimed that Lisa had claimed over the railing to escape him.
Lisa would’ve had to put her hands on the glass to get over the railing.
Similarities To Other Domestic Violence Cases
While it’s not right to compare domestic violence cases given the tragedy, the Lisa Harnum story, as mentioned earlier, was the wake-up call the media needed to report on the issue more openly.
The reason why it needed to happen is that victims were suffering in silence and the belief that domestic violence was a private matter required to be squashed. What’s more is this is the 21st Century, not the 20th Century, where women were only finding their voices but still treated like second-class citizens.
Now, when you look at some aspects of Lisa’s experiences with Simon, you see instantly that she was in a relationship where there was zero trust from Gittany. He was paranoid that people would favour her over him. He got in her head and was controlling towards her and would feed on her fear of being sent back to Canada and have her barred from returning.
Simon Gittany also controlled what she wore and how she looked, hence why she was doing weight training and how much her fashion sense changed. Amy Dale also said that Lisa had suffered from mental health issues and eating disorders when she was younger, and the perpetrator used them against her.
Using someone’s immigration status and reproduction rights against them is a form of abuse.
Despite occurring in 2011, Lisa’s story echoes some aspects of Hannah Clarke’s case. How? Well, both were abused with coercive control. Both their partners told them what they could and couldn’t wear. They also did what they could to get away from their significant others.
Leaving An Abusive Relationship Is Dangerous
Amy Dale made the point also that leaving an abusive relationship is dangerous before and after. Hannah Clarke is an excellent example of this. She had gotten out of the relationship and was trying to get on with her life when she was set upon by Rowan Baxter and, along with their three children, killed.
Lisa was in the process of getting out of the relationship when she was thrown from the balcony. It has been speculated that Simon Gittany had discovered what his fiancée was doing behind his back and acted impulsively.
The aftermath of Lisa Harnum’s death is a staunch reminder that domestic violence should not be ignored. It opened the door for victims to talk about it more openly. It also broke the stereotype of a guy getting drunk at the pub and going home and belting his wife.
Lisa Harnum deserved better, and Simon Gittany deserves to rot behind bars for robbing her of his life. He didn’t love her like he claimed in court. She was his plaything that he could abuse as he saw fit, and he was obsessed with finding a replacement in Rachelle Louise.
