For eight months after she was allegedly murdered by her jealous and controlling boyfriend, Sarah Gatt’s body remained in a bathtub inside her Melbourne public housing townhouse.
She was partially bare, wrapped in energy cords and coated with a hairdryer, a lamp and different home items.
Andrew Baker, her on-and-off boyfriend of greater than two years denies killing her in April 2017.
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However it’s alleged he did – someday between April 19 and his 50th birthday 4 days later.
The passage of time between her loss of life and her discovery means it was unattainable to find out her explanation for loss of life, however prosecutor John Dickie informed jurors within the opening of Baker’s homicide trial on Tuesday that he allegedly acted with murderous intent towards her, or a minimum of with an intention to trigger her actually severe damage.
Baker has pleaded not responsible.
Dickie described Baker as jealous, insecure, possessive and controlling. He did not like that Gatt additionally had one other on-and-off relationship with Leona Rei-Paku, he mentioned.
That relationship was additionally violent and turbulent. Each concerned a number of calls to triple-0, which will probably be performed to jurors.
Gatt had fallen on laborious occasions, battling psychological well being and drug points, had kids exterior her care and was on a incapacity help pension.
It is alleged her homicide, a month earlier than her 40th birthday, was motivated by Baker’s jealousy and unrequited love.
Rei-Paku final noticed Gatt alive on April 19, 2017. The facility was switched off manually to her Kensington townhouse on April 23, giving police a timeline for the alleged homicide, Dickie mentioned.
The facility was turned again on in August 2017, when it is admitted Baker and others went to Gatt’s house and noticed the physique within the bathtub.
Baker informed a good friend the physique could be Gatt’s. Dickie mentioned Baker later invited Rei-Paku to the home and that she had pulled again a blanket and noticed a foot.
Baker allegedly mentioned he and his good friend had been going to wash up the home and “throw the physique out”.
Protection barrister John Saunders cautioned jurors towards judging Baker and his pals for being in a home with a physique and never calling the police.
These individuals didn’t dwell a standard way of life, he mentioned.
Many, if not all, had psychological well being points and battled drug and alcohol abuse, he mentioned, describing them as individuals who dwell “on the outskirts of our society”.
“Andrew Baker didn’t homicide Sarah Gatt. He’s not answerable for her loss of life,” he mentioned.
It wasn’t till January 2018, eight months after Gatt’s alleged homicide, that police found her stays whereas doing a welfare test.
That they had left a calling card for her in December 2017 and after they returned on January three it was untouched.
Saunders mentioned there was no direct proof Baker killed Gatt, nor was there proof about her explanation for loss of life.
“In these circumstances how will you exclude, as an affordable chance, that Sarah Gatt didn’t die on account of accidents she sustained in an accident, akin to falling down the steps,” he mentioned.
He additionally mentioned Rei-Paku couldn’t be dominated out, noting that in Could 2017 she posed as her girlfriend at Centrelink and tried unsuccessfully to divert funds to her personal checking account.
Jurors will probably be proven crime scene movies and photographs from inside the house in a while Tuesday.
