This episode may contain content of a graphic nature, including descriptions of physical and
sexual violence against adults, children, and animals. Listener discretion is advised.
Hi everyone, I'm Talia and I'm Tanya, and together we are Crimes and
Consequences, a True crime podcast. Hi Tanya, Hi Talia. How are
you? I'm John pretty good? How about you? Splendid? Thanks for
asking. I hope everybody is doing amazing today. Thank you guys for listening
or watching us on True Crime Daily's YouTube. And I have a story today
about domestic violence. Before start, though, want me to start I do?
I want to ask everybody to subscribe or like us and write nice comments
not I hate comments like that, because we will comment on you and our
comment on the commoner section. Anyway, this is the Messa violence, which
I know can be a trigger for a lot of people. But story needs
to be told. Are you ready? Yes? This is a story about
Lisa cecil Ya Harnum and she was born in Toronto, Canada, in nineteen
eighty one. She basically was raised by her mom and she had a brother
she was very close to. His name was Jason. Lisa had a love
for dance at a young age ballet. She was one of those girls in
high school, beautiful, smart, good at everything she did, the envy
of everyone. Yeah, you're that's one of those girls you're so jealous of.
Yes, that was her. She was extra outgoing, had a social
circle of friends. But just like everybody else, she was prone to feeling
bad in your teens. You know how it is. Yeah, you're never
perfect. You're not good enough, your hair's not pretty enough, you're not
skinny enough, not skinny. Yeah, So Ashley saying that she developed an
eating disorder, and she also battled with depression in high school, and at
one point she was hospitalized for her eating disorder. I believe it was Bolimia
yan anorexia. And then again, she's in ballet and there's probably a lot
of pressure on her to be super tiny. Her mother had once stated in
the news that it was a very difficult time in Lisa's life. I mean,
as you can imagine, going in in a hospital and all that,
But she came out stronger, She overcame her issues and she end up graduating
doing well. But she didn't really want to stay in Toronto, Canada.
She wanted to go someplace where she felt had more sunshine, sunshine, sunshine,
and she ended up going at the age of twenty four. And then
this is in two thousand and four, she went to Sydney, Australia,
and she's there. She's living her life. She has this work visa for
twelve months and she likes to do hair. She's a hairdresser. She ends
up studying at it's called the Australian Hair and Beauty College in Sydney and working
part time to pay her twition. She loved this ribed at this job and
she didn't want to leave. She just really liked it there. She also
was into fashion makeup and again she's like dropped dead gorgeous, beautiful hair makeup,
wearing the bass clothes. It bothered her to be away from her family,
but they still talked to her. And her mom Joan and her brother
Jason talked every day on the phone and they were really supportive of her despite
her being far away. She ended up trying to pursue some citizenship in Australia,
But I mean, I do immigration laws, so I'm not sure how
she could do it, but I do know that she ended up being able
to extend her visa so she's there originally in two thousand and four, and
now let's go to two thousand and nine. She's living her best life,
even hair, doing makeup, going out looking good. But she needed a
new place to live. So she asked one of her friends, Hey,
do you know anybody that's looking for a roommate or a place I can stay?
And her friend mentions this name, Simon Getney. He was about ten
years older than her. He had a place and it was in it's a
very nice area of Sydney called Hyde and it was across the street from Hyde
Park. His apartment was fifteen stories up and it had like a panoramic view
of the park. Oh beautiful, yeah, and all windows Florida ceiling windows.
So she talks to Simon and he agrees to let her run a room.
It's a little bit background on Simon. Simon worked selling shoes. He
was a shoe importer. Oh, shoe importer. I'm guessing these are very
high end. They're not the shoes you wear. No, No, definitely
not. They're not the shoes I wear. There, Yes, high end,
designer, designer footwear. He does it online and a lot of what
he got came from the United States. When Lisa talked to her mom Joan
about the arrangement, she said it was just going to be temporary and she
was going to find some other place to live. But things happened. Okay,
Simon's a very good looking guy. She's a good looking girl. They're
living together and being clicked. How about that? Things clicked all right?
At first, she thought Simon wasn't interested in women, but she found out
he was. Definitely, he definitely was, he was. So she moves
into this luxury apartment, fifteen floor in the Inner City, the Hide.
It was about two months after they were living together that they they started dating,
dating, dating, they're dating, their dating, things happen. Eventually
it grows serious there and Lisa's not moving out. Remember it was gonna be
temporary. Oh yeah, she's she's not moving out. Something strange as Simon
would call Lisa byer middle name, Cecilia. Cecilia name it is Lisa is
too, Yeah it is, Well, that's what he called her. And
he became very infatuated with her. And time goes on, they're starting to
fall in love. Twenty eleven comes along. It's Lisa's thirtieth birthday. There's
this party and there's a video out there which Simon gets on one knee and
he proposes in front of all of her friends. Kind of nerve racking.
I think, yeah, I know, because she said, no, I
know. She's like, have you seen those videos? Like you that much
anymore? She's like, oh, you're taking a chance, yeah, not
just videoing it, but in front of everybody. Want to private, but
anyway, she starts crying and she's nodding her head. Yes. Yes.
She was so shocked, like she couldn't even speak. She's just overwhelmed.
So now they're officially engaged. Her mother, Joan, was skeptical about this
relationship because Joan had learned a lot of stuff. Cecilia, I mean sorry,
Lisa had confided in her about what the past year and a half two
years of Button life, and it wasn't his picture perfect suppressed as you would
think. The outside, you have this gorgeous couple, right, they're living
in a luxury apartment having fun, but there were a lot of things that
happened hide and closed doors. Simon became more controlling over Lisa, which is
how a lot of the domestic violence cases end up happening, right, that's
how they start, and they get control. Next thing, you know,
you don't have any friends, any family. Yeah, they isolate you.
And so he starts telling her how to dress. She could only wear pants,
okay, okay. He told her how to style her hair, which
was in a ponytail. They no longer went out to clubs the party have
fun, mostly because Simon was really uncomfortable with guys looking at her. Okay,
he's insecure. He's extremely insecure. Extremely, he's extremely insecure. A
text she wants sad Lisas sent to her mother a red like this. This
is a quote. This relationship sure has changed me a lot. Exclamation.
I'm much more calm than I was before, domesticated, conservative, dainty.
I have nails now too, and they're natural. I have a French manicure.
I bought a whole bunch of flat and casual shoes. Oh so she's
not even allowed to wear heels. No, no more heels, and she
wrote no more cleavage. Jummerfraid. Wow. She wrote, Simon is terrified
of summer and the beach. He said, we need to find a burka
bathing suit for me to wear. Eh he. Then she wrote, exo
he he exo. I'm sure he was not kidding. He rewinded her entirely
covered up. I mean she was beautiful to go out. Yeah no,
and that's when her mom was this is not a red bright, red flag,
red time out. Not okay, what's going on? She would have
been even more worried if she knew about Simon's past. Someone tell you it,
all right, just briefly. Simon was eighteen years old when he was
basically what we would call here but I'm probation. He was given in two
year good behavior bond after savagely attacking a deli owner who had confronted him because
Simon was harassing a female worker was his ex girlfriend. His ex girlfriend worked
at this dally. Yes, and he's harassing her and the owner gets involved,
Yes, okay, and he just what the wow? Yeah? Oh.
In obviously nineteen ninety three, Simon was caught outside a Era Matra nightclub
with a car full of stolen goods, so he's stealing man. He didn't
show for court, warrant was issued for his arrest, and then in nineteen
ninety four there was this whole string of robberies thefts where he when Stantley was
working Oh, he's just coincidentally worked you just started going missing. Yeah,
And there was this detective his name was Detective Sergeant Keith Bristow and his partner.
They went to Simon's family's home because he lived with his parents. They
were wearing regular clothes. The detectives arrive in the doorstep and they have a
warrant for his arrest because they believe they have enough evidence to get him for
stealing. But when the officers tried to arrest him, all hell broke loose.
This is crazy. Sergeant Bristow's partner was struck and not to the ground,
just out of nowhere by an old school boombox. What I was like,
bam, And it was either by Simon's mom or his sister. Oh
that's an unusual item to hit someone with. Really, and why you why
you hitting a cop? I know you're not going to get away with this,
Like it's not going to just go away if you hit the cap and
run off or do whatever. I never understand why people do this. I
mean I do understand why people. It wasn't even him right anyway, So
if you think that's bad, Sergeant Bristow had a hold of Simon and he
was struck, fell onto a bed on top of Simon. So he's on
top of Simon on a bad Simon starts biting down on his ear. Oh
no, and the sergeant is saying don't, don't stop, stop, but
there was no stopping Simon. Simon then bit right through his ear and then
spit it out. He did it, Mike Tyson right, Oh no to
the police officer, the fuck is this about? What the fuck is this?
Come on now? A little cucko. In the end ended up getting
kind of a slap on the wrist. He was jailed and after a pre
supported Simon's claims that he'd undergone some religious metamoris. He's found God. Simon
left Australia into a strict Catholic order at a monastery in Fringance. He every
morning he would wake up around five o'clock and he would just pray all day.
Good for him, yeah, good for him. Now he had this
single bedroom and he was pretty much isolated and he'd have his meals alone.
And the priest who had supported all of this claimed to the news channel seven
News later that he really believed that Simon had a good heart. Simon really
wanted to do better, but he didn't stick with that. How do you
know why he's doing a spoiler I mean spoiler alert, No, I mean
obvious. That lasted a little over a year and he left the monastery and
he basically he couldn't handle a life of celibacy. Yeah wow, So he
left. Yeah, and he went back to Sydney and he just kind of
picked up we're left off. He was going to nightclubs. One specifically from
going from a monastery to a nightclub, right, you know what happened to
the devotion, Well, just got devoted to other things exactly. So one
of the clubs he liked to go to is called the Ivy Nightclub, and
he ended up being arrested in two thousand and one for drug trafficking, drug
trafficking fifty two pills ecstasy tablets. Whoa five thousand in cash all in his
pants. Wow, they're all mine, I swear. Yeah, I just
like to carry. I'm not going to sell it. I'm not going to
sell it. Sell it. No, he did, and he ended up
pleading guilty to the charges. So now let's fast forward. In December of
two thousand and ten, Lisa went back home to Canada to Toronto to visit
her family, and she'd been with him for about Simon about a year.
Simon didn't end up going on this trip. When Lisa got back home,
both her brother and her mom noticed some changes in her. She wore her
hair and a ponytail. She didn't wear makeup anymore. She was into makeup,
remember, and fashion, and her clothes were dull like black, gray,
non revealing clothes, which was really odd because again, she loved fashion.
She loved fashion, she loved makeup, she loved being beautiful hair yes,
yes, two just like us exactly, not only different. Lisa told
her mom she wasn't supposed to see her friends in Canada because Simon didn't want
her to go out and he would always check on her. She couldn't visit
friends when she went back home, No, because he's controlling or even then,
oh man. And eventually Lisa comes back to Sydney and there's an email
that her mom sent basically saying that Simon's is no good for you. You
need to go. You need to Mom's no best, right, they do?
They do unless you ask my kids? Yeah, and I know you're
kidding, You're a dip, right, annoying, the most un cool thing
that's ever right. My daughter even has me like pull down, like not
in front of her school when I let her out. Yeah, because for
drop me off on the next black please, I don't want to be nobody.
Yeah. She even had me on Facebook put that I wasn't related to
her. It's it's humiliating to be to know me. She's fifteen, by
the way. Yeah, but mom's always no. They always know. Even
when when you were a teenager you didn't want to listen to your mom.
I didn't want my mom knew nothing. I knew everything exactly, so everything,
but moms always no. The but before I tell you more, quick
break. So Lisa ends up telling her mom, don't send me these messages
because I think Simon might be reading them. Oh, of course he probably
is right, And Simon, of course is Yeah. He's creep and he
would have a very explosive personality. Little things can make him go off.
For example, if she prepared dinner not right, or she was working out
too long, he would just become super angry. She felt like she was
tiptoeing around him, and she would do everything possible to not make him upset.
You know, try to be perfect, right, becau, it's just
not worth the explosion, like the reaction you're going to get. And she
probably thinks I am doing things like he can probably guess lighting her, you
know. Yeah. Eventually, despite having to pay so Lisa had to pay
fifteen hundred in rent a week. A week, Simon convinced Lisa to stop
working at the hair and beauty college. No, now she's going to become
financially dependent. Hinginging right, the other form of abuse. In early twenty
eleven, Lisa told Simon she really wanted a couple days to work. What
is she doing? She's got no kids sitting there doing what She's probably not
allowed to go anywhere. She's not allowed to hang out with her friends,
right, She's probably stuck in that apartment forever, not allowed to go out.
Poor thing. He suggested that she volunteer as a compromise, and they
got into this big argument that ended up with Lisa leaving. This is in
February of two thousand and eleven, and she left for a couple of days,
but then they got back together almost out I know. But during the
time she was away, she confided in her friend. Her name was Rebecca
about the situation being smothered. Basically, right, she's being smothered. Then
she gets back with him. With Simon and Lisa's friend, Rebecca gets a
message from Simon telling her to stay out of their business and leave Lisa alone.
In April of twenty eleven, Simon sent some kind of abusive texts to
Lisa. It was because she wore her hair down. Oh no, yeah,
there you go again. Yeah, with that attitude, he wrote,
Since you got an attitude and you made the comment about me working during the
day. There are two bills worth nine hundred dollars, one for electricity and
one for elstra. I don't actually know what telstra is, but like gas
or something. Yeah, probably I want you to pay for them with your
own money. With the with the no job that she has. With the
no job, Lisa replied, if I had a job that paid me money
instead of something that you're comfortable with, then maybe I could pay something.
You are a heartless, heartless person. This pissed Simon off. He's not
a heartless person. No, of course not. He's giving her everything,
yes, giving her everything. What is her problem? He wrote her back,
quote, who the fuck you think you are walking around the house like
you own it, or coming and going without my permission. Again, I've
waited for you to apologize for your disgusting comment, but you walk around like
a peacock with your hair out and too proud to apologize. You lie to
me and promised you listen to me at all times. Obviously you're still the
proud person and nothing has changed. I was trying to break her. How
dare you have your hair out? They're not listening to me? Yeah,
and you walk around like you own them the place when I'm paying for everything,
is really what he wanted to say. It's wow. Lisa's mom,
Joan once told Channel seven News that she overheard an argument between Lisa and Simon
and Lisa was going to leave. She went to grab her purse and Simon
grabbed it and attempted to pull her purse away. When he did it,
he broke her finger. Oh. Now, they'd only been engaged for five
days when they got into this massive, heated argument. Simon sent a text
to Lisa that said, quote, Cecilia, you're my fiance and I love
you, but we both know you have problems. Yeah, it's all her,
of course, it's her. All her not fucking hem yes, lighting
the fuck out her right. Oh my god, the problems affect the mood
of our relationship at times, but you refuse to admit it. Please pray
to God so he can help you get rid of these habits. Oh,
I'm so angry. It's such a narcissist. So geez, it's all her
fault. Like the only thing that can help her is God, right,
or listening to him? Yeah, listening to him. She just listened to
him. If she just listened, all her problems would be solved. Lisa
told him that I love you. I do have faults. It doesn't though
obviously Simon, I'm Simon, doesn't. Simon's perfect. Now he's perfect.
She said, she has lots of faults, but she was heartbroken when he
would yell at her rather than try to help her work through her problems.
And this pissed him off because he's always pissed, right, And he told
her, basically, you need to fix yourself. Okay, Well, let
me where you with her? Then if she's so broken, because he's trying,
because she can be a good person, if he sees the potential,
if she would just do everything he said, everything things started to change for
Lisa. She told her mom she was considering moving to Melvin. I always
want to say Melbourne. I always want to say Melbourne, Melvin, Melvin
m h into a rental property. She basically what she was stating is that
the excitement or of the engagement that was that was over, the reality of
the situation was setting in. But Simon stopped that from happening by calling Lisa's
friend and being like, don't you even think of letting her rent that place
from you? And given all the stress that Lisa was going through, her
eating disorder resurfaced and she recognized that she was having issues. She decided to
see a personal trainer she was working out, and she told the trainer that
she was struggling with an eating disorder and she was trying to get healthier work
out. The personal trainer recommended that Lisa speak to a counselor who had experience
with eating disorders, and the counselor's name was Michelle Richmond. Lisa called see
Michelle and asked her, can we make sure that you don't take any notes
of when we meet, because I'm really worried that Simon will somehow get his
hands. On these notes, she expressed how she felt very isolated and believed
that he was monitoring everything she was doing. She did explain to Michelle how
she had a felt a loss of control, couldn't wear what she wanted to
wear, couldn't go be with her friends, couldn't do the things that she
wanted to do, and she wasn't even allowed to look at guys when they
were together. What if she accidentally did, she would get mad. You
have to look at the floor all the time. But at that point,
she said she wasn't physically abused. But Michelle was very concerned about her safety
and recommended that maybe she go to a shelter for abuse women and suggested that
she slowly move her belongings to a storage unit, you know, just to
get out. But Lisa was she was just too afraid of it. On
July twenty eight, twenty eleven, she met with her personal trainer for the
last time, and the personal trainer could sense that something was right with Lisa.
She seems stressed, nervous. Lisa ended up handing over two pillowcases full
of clothes and said she was planning on leaving and she's going to go back
to work as a job a hairdresser. She had these two pillowcases and she
ended up bringing stuff to a storage unit that she did rent with her own
money. I don't know how she had her own money, but she did.
Eventually, though, Simon confronted her about this, and you said,
well, how would he know because he's been monitoring her calls, for text
messages, everything she does. Did she have like spyware on her computer?
And spoiler alert? Oh man, yes, so he saw everything. Everything,
everything that's tax that was like her part time job. Yeah, what
the hell does he You know how much time you have to invest to do
something like that. I mean, I'm not you tell me I've never been
I mean I've never done it. Geez. Around seven pm, Michelle,
the counselor, received a call from Lisa's phone, but no one spoke.
Michelle called the number back, called Lisa's number back, and Simon answered and
said, Michelle, you fucking bitch, try to contact her or have anything
to do with her. I know where you live, and I'll hurt you.
What. Yeah, now he's like frightening her. I didn't even give
a fuck. No. Then Michelle received a text from Lisa that read quote,
leave me alone. You've ruined my relationship. Drop all my stuff off
at Concierge no later than tomorrow at ten am. Okay could She had given
some stuff to Michelle too. On July twenty ninth, Lisa called her mom
in Canada and told her to write down the following information. It was all
of Michelle's contact information, and she said Lisa said, quote, if anything
happen happens to me, please contact Michelle. Oh that's got to be a
asmara. Mom. Yes, a terrifying thing to hear from your daughter if
anything happens to me and she's way in Canada on the other side of the
world. Yeah, you know, yes, Yeah. I was just so
helpless, and basically your mom said you need to come on back right now,
get back here immediately, asked to the airport stat So Lisa went online
and she tried to book some tickets and work out her visa. Later that
day, she called her mom and told her Simon had found out what she
was doing, and Lisa found files on the computer that showed all the tracking
Simon had been doing with her. Later that night, Misschelle Counselor received a
message from Lisa. It said quote, I wish I never met you because
you have ruined my life. I've been kids out of the house by Simon.
I had everything with Simon, but you brainwashed me Michelle, and now
I'm on the streets with nothing. I want the money I paid for you
ruining my life as I'm broke and need money. You should be ashamed of
yourself. Thank you for this big mess you've created. Wow, of course
it wasn't Lisa. It wasn't It wasn't Lisa, it was Simon. Yeah.
It's mid morning July thirtieth, twenty eleven. There's this Japanese exchange student
and he's walking down to Liverpool Street. I don't know where that is.
He's going to catch a bus home with his brother. He's waiting on the
Hyde Park side of the street. I remember I told you that they had
this panoramic view with all glass that faced the park. So he's waiting there
for the bus and he hears something that caused him to look up the fifteenth
floor. Then he saw something fall down the side of the building. And
where the object that fell from where the fifteenth floor, he could see what
looked like a man that was shirtless leaning over the side of the balcony and
then this is all happening quick right right, and then bam, he hears
something hit the ground. At first he thought it was garbage, and then
that someone had thrown out the window, but obviously no, it was Lisa.
And then there's this video of Simon trying to get going into an elevator
and he had put on a shirt. He's in his pajamas and he's just
making weird hand gestures and freaking out and he comes running down in a hysterical
state to Lisa's body. Some of the people, because this is an ari
it's in Sydney, some of the people they stop and they see Lisa and
they try to recess it, try to help her, and it was too
late. Yeah, fifteen stories. Fifteen stories is not survival. No,
oh my god, I don't want to think about it. That's Selsa's body
is or purse which had fallen with her, and this is really weird.
In her pocket was this piece of paper and it's probably like this big and
it's ripped multiple times this way. On the paper it says there are surveillance
cameras inside and outside of the house. Why is it in her pocket.
Yeah, and why is it ripped up? I don't know. Someone had
installed there was cameras in their apartments and outside their apartment. I don't know
exactly where they were in it, but I know he had them outside too.
He wanted to track when she's leaving, when she's coming back, what
she's doing. CCTV footage showed that only sixty nine seconds before Lisa fell from
the building, she can be seen running out of the apartment and Simon's chasing
after her, and he grabs her and he ends up putting his hand around
her mouth. Neighbors other apartment units, people in the other units, could
hear please help me, God help me? That's sixty nine seconds before her
body's wow over. As I said, After Lisa falls, Simon is seen
on this footage in front of his door, and he's trying to get an
elevator, and he's pacing back and forth, waiting, waiting, waiting for
the elevator, and then in the elevator as side, he's clearly freaking out,
running around like a rat in a cage. All the while, Joan
has been texting, oh no, because Lisa was supposed to get the tickets
to fly Toronto, So Toronto, and Joan hasn't heard from Lisa now,
and she texts Simon, quote, please tell me that Lisa's okay. This
is a mother pleading with you, wanting to know she's okay. And it
was about two am that Joan got a call from the police stating her daughter
was dead. Oh so Simon had his own version of events. Oh yeah,
what's he got to say? Yeah, I can't wait hear this.
He's got shit to say. He told the police that she fell, she
fell from the balcony. Okay, So it's July thirtieth. He woke up
to go on his computer and to look at his spyware. Of course he
couldn't log in or something happened, so he tells the police he has a
spywear. Yeah, he's trying to be forthcoming. Yeah right, he's just
being honest. And then he looks at porn Okay after the spywear, and
he tells the police's looking at some porn okay for some reason, I guess,
he wasn't able to get in the spyware, so he tries to log
in again, but he was unable to and he found out that Lisa had
changed the password. Oh, she got into it. Wow, I don't
know. Oh, they probably set him off. Yes, hello, right,
and so he's pissed. They're arguing for a while, and then he
went. He says, he went back to bed, and he said he
got up a little later and found that Lisa had packed her bags and she's
booking a flight. She's leaving, and he challenged her as she grabbed her
purse to run out the door. He chased after her. He admitted that
he grabbed her and he brought her back into the apartment and wanted to talk.
He was gonna make her some tea. Uh huh, make her some
time. Uh huh. Sure, gonna make her some tea and they're gonna
work things out. But after he brought her back in, she ran out
again. I mean they were, they're in the hallway, he's grabbing her,
she's it's probably a frantic scene. Come oh, it's bad. Yeah,
and we're just gonna come have a calm cup of tea. No,
I don't believe this at all. He says. Lisa ran from the couch
while he's making tea. She's just making the tea and instead of running out
the door, she ran to the balcony. Yeah, that's yes, bullshit
bullshit. Why bullshit meter is going off real real high bullshit, Like,
why would you run to the balcony? Yeah, why would you run to
the balcony instead of running for the door. Again, he tries to get
her in time. She's got one leg. Oh, she's gonna jump over
the balcony and the balcony so everybody knows, is glass. It's a glass
balcony with a little bit of a metal railing. She's got one leg over
the balcony, and she's got a purse on her and she's gonna jump with
her purse. Okay, that's a good point. Come on now, Yeah,
again the bullshit. And she's gonna jump instead of trying to leave.
Yes, she tries to get there and she slips, and he says,
she's laying on the awning below and grabbing the balcony and then she just looses
her grip and she's gone. Fifteen stores. There were no signs of a
struggle, no, and so maybe his story could have been something that the
police could possibly have believed. But there was more people that witnessed what happened.
In particular, there was a guy named Josh Josh Rathmol He was an
editor for I think ABC at the time, and he's just walking in the
park when he notices something across the road at the Hyde Park apartment complex.
He looked up and what he believes he saw was someone without a shirt caring
what he thought was a suitcase okay, and it looked to Josh like the
person was throwing the suitcase over the balcony. And that ends up being what
gets gets Simon. So four days after Lisa's death, he was formally charged
with her murder. He's got these murder charges hanging over his head. He's
in jail, but he manages to find love still. Really, he's got
a new girlfriend. Her name is Rachel. Rachel. She was twenty fourth
time of his trial. He's got to be like forty, right, because
he was ten years older than yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, Well
what they met in two thousand and nine and they claim they were just friends,
but people believe, I don't know that perhaps they were more, but
maybe he was cheating and Lisa, Yes, well that would explain a lot.
I'm not saying it happened. I don't know. I don't know.
I wasn't there. I wasn't there. It's a legend, yes, and
I close friends. One of the things that really surprised people is how much
that Lisa and Rachel looked a lot alike. Really, they both had long,
dark hair, slim figures, brown eyes. Later on, Rachel would
say that she didn't see any resemblance whatsoever. Well, do you really want
to see a resemblance? Right? Right? Right? No? No,
no, with your boyfriend's old girlfriend that's dead. Yeah, no, no.
Simon ends up instead of having a jury trial, he chooses to have
a trial by judge, basically probably because everybody thought it was an asshole.
I'm guessing, I'm speculating. I don't know. To me, that would
be risky because in a jury trial you have to convince all twelve people.
That's true, but I mean there could be just one person, like a
holdout, thinking that you're innocent, whereas if you're having a bench trial and
the judge is just deciding it's only one person. But a judge is going
to look at the law and not be based on emotions. That's true,
like, oh you're an asshole, so so you're guilty, right, It
is true. My thought but I think I would gamble on a jury trial.
Yeah, I think I would. I mean, I think I'm likable
enough. I mean I would never, you know, hope to be in
that situation. But yeah, I think I would just gamble it. But
okay, as lawyers always want a jury trial, Yes, all you gotta
do is appear likable, like you said, well maybe, yeah, no
he's not. Maybe you know, if I could just charm the jury and
that one person, one person, well a least he didn't take the stand.
Oh that's too bad, because I would love to see that. And
he's not that big of a narcissist. I'm surprised. His trial began October
twenty First, the prosecutors painted this picture of Simon jealous, abusive partner,
how he alienated Lisa from her friends and family. They brought up all the
surveillance and tracking and controlling, and then how coincidentally when she finally has the
courage to leave, she's dead. Yeah, but Simon tried to paint it
differently. His defense attorney said that she'd had depression in when she she was
younger, she had issues, and that she committed suicide. What a crack
of shit, I guess it's the only defense he really has. I know,
we call it polishing a turd. You have a really bad true crime
daily, you know, we do call it polishing a turn. Yeah,
when you have a bad professional term, it's a professional terms. That's what
his lawyers had to do, was polish a turn. So they tried basically
he just that was the gist of it. But then when Josh Wrath Maul
testified, that was kind of the nail in the coffin. And then also,
by the way, the prosecutors brought up so we have this glass balcony,
there's no fingerprints of Lisa's on it, and then it should be filled
with fingerprints she's trying to climb over it and struggling and slipping. Yeah,
there was none. So they had all the witnesses testified, and the trial
actually lasted for four weeks, which seems I mean, it's that's kind of
a long time. A long time for this. I don't know, it's
not a O. J. Simpson case here, you know, but some
serial killer with like up to victims or something. But okay, well,
guess what the judge thought. I'm really hoping the judge thought he was guilty.
Yes, of course, the judge thinked everybody and then said, quote
and many times in his evidence, the accused struck me as a person playing
a role, telling a story which fitted neatly with the objective evidence, but
which did not more than that. I don't know if that exactly means.
Basically, what she's saying is his account often made him probably look better,
yes, and it was like didn't match the facts. Yeah, she saw
right through his bullshit, Yes she did. She didn't like that they were
trying to sabotage for a character. She said, there's no doubt in my
mind that he was in a state of rage at that point and he lost
control of his temper. That's probably true. Oh yeah, of course too
the proposition that he was able to bring himself under control so quickly after the
struggle that they saw on the CCTV footage where he's grabbing her by the mouth
like behind her, yeah, and pulling her back into the apartment, and
then in sixty nine seconds she's not over the balcony. He's calmed down,
making tea yeah yeah, and she yeah, climbing is over that. The
judge that I cannot know exactly what happened in the apartment in the minute or
so following the struggle at the door. But I think it's likely that Lisa
Harnum was at some point rendered unconscious. Oh that's her theory. In those
sixty nine seconds, I was wondering, like, if she was she wasn't
screaming or really like struggling, that would make sense. Yeah, I mean,
in sixty nine seconds, you can make some pull someone in and make
them at least unconscious. Yeah, I mean I wasn't there. I'm just
saying it makes sense. Based on my assessment of all the evidence, I'm
satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the accused maintained his rage and in that state carried
her to the balcony and unloaded her over the edge. I find the accused
guilty of the murder of Lisa Cecilia. That's when Rachel, Rachel screamed,
you're wrong, you're wrong. She had to be restrained. She eventually went
outside where all the reporters were, took out a cigarette and asked if anybody
had a lighter, and she just was filmed in front of everybody, crying
hysterically, and Simon's mom had to be taken away by him. I can
understand his mom. Yeah, you don't want to think that your child did
this. And that's basically the gist. He did end up getting twenty six
years Was it twenty six to life? It was twenty six years in jail
with the minimum nonparroll of for eighteen years. Okay, Wow, damn,
that's a crazy story. Rachel ended up suing the Daily Telegraph because they wrote
three stories about our calling her stripper bis gale or a woman of no morals.
Oh well, they shouldn't be writing things like that in her defense unless
unless she was. I mean, I don't know, I don't know,
I don't know, but I guess they settled, so maybe she wasn't.
Those tabloids love to just stir ship up. Wow, this is a terrible,
terrible story. You know, I hate the miss I mean, I
hate I hate all of them. I'm like, I hate domestic violence stories,
but I hate everything every story we do. I hate. It's just
so sad, Like she was so close, I know, that's a getting
thing, like her poor mother, Like she actually got out of the apartment
and he dragged her back in. Wow. Well, thanks, you're welcome.
Thanks for that and if anybody out there is suffering from domestic violence,
please reach out to someone and get help. Yes, definitely you and you
may feel like you have no way out or you're alone or something, but
there are resources and just get out, Just get out. It could save
your life. That's a sort of Lisa. Well, thank you everyone for
watching and listening and listening to our episode this week. If you would like
to find out more about us or about becoming a Patreon member where you can
get additional episodes, you can go to our website Crimesanconsequences dot com, or
you can go to Patreon dot com, slash t nt Crimes. You can
find us on social media, Facebook and Instagram at Hardcore true Crime. You're
so cute right now. You look like to me like you'd be a school
team like our Sunday school teacher. And that's all we have for today.
Hey you ever today, and thank you again to True Crime Daily and until
our next episode, listen and don't kill each other. Bye bye