FINAL WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT

Assessment 3

2128IBA BUSINESS PROCESSES

Question 1.

Simon Gittany was accused of murdering Lisa Harnum in July 2011. He was
subsequently found guilty in November 2013 and condemned to 18 years imprisonment
without parole. Harnum and Gittany lived together and were engaged to be married when
Harnum died. They lived on the 15th floor of an apartment block in Sydney’s CBD, this is
where Lisa Harnum dropped to her death from the balcony of this apartment. Gittany was
accused of intentionally lifting Harnum over the banister and dropping her over the edge
where she fell to her death.

The homicide presented in this case was murder, though it was never established to be
considered a premeditated murder, further it would be categorised as a domestic homicide
but, more detailed, this homicide would be considered an intimate partner homicide. With the
offender being male and the victim was female. They were defined being in a partner
relationship as the victim and the offender were engaged to be married and they lived
together in the same apartment at the time of Lisa’s death.

Question 2.

Simon Gittany Was 38 years old at the time of Harnum’s death. He is part of a large
family, being one of six children. His parents originated from Lebanon before they moved to
Australia and settled in Sydney’s Western suburbs. There is no evidence of any physical or
mental abuse suffered by Mr. Gittany during childhood. Gittany had a stable rearing and his
family has been as a close group described by Ms Anna Robillard, a psychologist who spoke
with Gittany. He obtained his High School Certificate and later attained an apprenticeship as
a tiler while which he later did not complete (Austlii, 2014). He expressed to Ms. Robilliard
that he was not able to stay at any job for longer than about six months and during stages of
unemployment, Gittany stayed at home (Austlii, 2014).

At the age of 18, Gittany was convicted of assault causing actual bodily harm to a deli
employee who was also Gittany’s ex-girlfriend. But he was subsequently released and
received a two-year good behaviour. At the age of 21, Gittany was convicted of two separate
offences, receiving stolen goods and failing to appear in court. When officers arrived at his
house to arrest him for these crimes, Gittany severely assaulted one of the officers. Gittany’s

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probation officer provided a report stating that Gittany was a religious man and wanted to
commit his life to religion which resulted in the appeal getting dropped. Gittany followed his
ambition of committing to a life of religion and joined a Catholic order in France. But before
completing his noviciate, Gittany decreed it was "not his calling" and he moved back to
Australia (Austlii, 2014). Shortly after returning to Australia, Gittany was convicted of
several crimes including the supply prohibited drugs and having custody of stolen goods.
Gittany has been identified with a high-profile background and as stated by Justice Lucy
McCallum, he is a jealous and controlling man (Austlii, 2014).

Question 3.

In this case, the offender was a male and statistics in the Australians Institute of
Criminology (2017) show that this is a common occurrence in 79% of intimate partner
homicides. This homicide took place in the home, according to the Australians Institute of
Criminology (2017), this is where 63% of homicides take place. Additionally, there is limited
evidence to suggest that Mr. Gittany was employed at the time of the murder (Austlii, 2014).
Statistics reveal that 53.5% of intimate partner homicide perpetrators are unemployed at the
time of the homicide (Australians Institute of Criminology, 2017). Lastly, Gittany was born
in Australia and according to Australians Institute of Criminology (2017), this is a factor in
69.1% of male offenders involved in an intimate homicide.

Question 4.

Lisa Harnum was a woman, born in 1981. She was born and raised in Toronto,
Canada by her mother with her older brother, Jason. Growing up, Harnum participated in
ballet and dancing. As a result of bullying during her schooling years, Harnum suffered from
depression and was later diagnosed with anorexia and bulimia. At the age of 18, Lisa Harnum
was hospitalised due to her eating disorder. During her early 20’s, Harnum decided to leave
Canada and move to Australia on a working visa. Harnum settled in Sydney where she
worked as a receptionist and a hairdresser in a beauty salon.

Lisa Harnum met Simon Gittany in 2010, shortly after she moved in with him as a
housemate and later became his girlfriend. Harnum was portrayed by friends and family as
vivacious and cheerful but this slowly became the opposite while dating Gittany who was
physically and emotionally dominant (Bibby & Partridge, 2013). This dominant and

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controlling relationship isolated her from her friends and family and caused the eating
disorder that she suffered from in her teens to relapse in July 2011. To assist with overcoming
this relapse, Harnum started to see a personal trainer, Lisa Brown and a therapist, Michelle
Richmond. Harnum shared her unhappiness in her relationship and how Gittany made her
feel belittled with Brown and Richmond but also told them that she would still like to have
children with Gittany (Austlii, 2014). Lisa Harnum has no criminal record unlike her partner,
Gittany, who had a large history.

Question 5.

Lisa Harnum’s death has many similarities to homicides in the intimate partner
homicide category. First similarity being that females make up 65% of victims in intimate
partner homicides with 25% of female victims between the age of 25 and 34 (Australians
Institute of Criminology, 2017). Miss Harnum was 30 years old at her death, placing her in
that age classification. Secondly, many women who are the victims of intimate partner
homicides are bullied, dominated and controlled to the stage where they think they have no
option but to stay in the toxic relationship. Lisa unfortunately attempted to stand up for
herself and tried to leave which resulted in a deadly outcome. Although the way Harnum was
killed was no doubt horrific, the type of murder in Harnum’s case differs from other intimate
partner homicides as the ‘method of killing’ in most intimate partner homicides are caused by
stabbing or strangulation. 39.6% of intimate partner homicides are caused from the use of
sharp weapons making this method the largest cause of death for women in intimate partner
cases. Lastly, Harnum was murdered in the apartment where both herself and Gittany lived,
this is consistent with others as reports state that 88% of intimate partner homicides take
place within the place of residency (Ramsey, 2015)

Question 6.

Simon Gittany had a previous history of violence. According to his criminal record
which includes assault causing bodily harm and a more serious incident where he
intentionally bit part of a police officer’s ear off shows early signs of risk.

In the lead up to the homicide, in 2010, Gittany had threatened to kill Harnum if she
were to ever leave him and stated that he would portray it to look like a suicide (Austlii,
2014). On a separate occurrence, Gittany made contact with Michelle Richmond, Harnum’s

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therapist, and threatened her and abused her in a phone conversation where he accused her of
helping Lisa to leave him. During this conversation, Simon claimed that he knew where
Richmond lived and he would severely harm her if she contacted or even tried to contact
Harnum again (Bibby, 2013).

Additional warning signs were raised from the impulsive controlling manner of the
relationship. Gittany would control what Harnum could wear, who she could see and what
she could do. Gittany constantly violated the privacy of Lisa, he would read her text
messages and emails, listen to her phone calls and slowly isolated her from friends and
family. Gittany had installed surveillance cameras in their apartment so he could always track
Lisa’s activity within their apartment. Harnum had realised what Gittany was doing and
recognised all these warning signs but unfortunately, she stayed out of fear.

Question 7.

There were many guardians with the power to potentially protect Lisa Harnum from
harm, both formal and informal. The first potential informal guardian was Lisa Brown, who
was Harnum’s personal trainer and close friend. Harnum would confide in Brown about her
toxic relationship with Gittany. Brown had attempted to help Harnum to escape her
relationship with Mr Gittany. (Dale, 2013).

The next potential informal gradian of Harnum was her mother, Joan Harnum.
Harnum’s mother was aware of the situation her daughter was in. She knew that Lisa’s
relationship was toxic even though Lisa would justify the situation to her mother, there were
occasions where Lisa would reach out for help. Joan Harnum offered many times to help Lisa
escape her relationship with Gittany.

Michelle Richmond, who was Harnum’s therapist, had also attempted to help Lisa
escape the relationship. Gittany found out about this and called to abuse Richmond. After
Gittany threatened to harm both herself and Miss Harnum if she attempted to make contact,
Michelle Richmond feared for her own safety and the safety of Lisa too. Following these
threats, Richmond should have contacted the police to express her concern for Harnum’s
safety but she did not want to risk their safety by doing this and conformed to Gittany’s
request.

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 All these people were friends and family of Harnum and they were all aware of the
controlling, abusive and dominant relationship she had with Gittany. They knew she was
receiving abuse; she was unhappy and wanted to escape the relationship but, unfortunately
none of them made contact with the authorities.

During the attack before Harnum’s death, neighbours heard Harnum’s screams and
they too could have called the police but failed to do so. Reasons for this could be fear of
Gittany turning on them and harming them or Harnum, as in the case of Michelle Richmond.
Another reason for no one to contact the police could be that none of them believed that
Gittany could cause such severe harm to Harnum.

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