Simon Gittany Case Study

Q1. Type of homicide

              Simon Gittany’s case was identified as Intimate partner Homicide (IPH).

Intimate partner homicide means “the killing of a spouse, ex-spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend” (National Institute of Justice, 2003).

                In this case, Lisa Harnun was Gittany’s fiancée. Gittany was found guilty of causing Ms. Harnum’s death by throwing her from his apartment’s balcony on 15th floor.

Q2. Offender’s main characteristics

            Gittany was 38 years old when he committed the crime. He was grown up in Sydney with Lebanese background. His family looked after him well. Gittany did not need to pay for rent when he lived with his family according to his mother. And he has five siblings.

              Gittany had been unemployed before he started his own business. He set up a company selling women’s shoes that were imported from the U.S. online. The offender was rich. He lived in a luxury apartment in the center of the city in Sydney.

             Gittany committed to some serious offences in the past. He attacked a senior detective when he was arrested by the officer over stolen goods in 1994. He bit the detective’s ear and later he was sent to jail for 30 months and received a fine for the stolen goods. In 2011, he was taken to the court for selling cocaine and sentenced for a period of time.

Q3. Similarities or differences (Offenders)

                Jacquelyn, Nancy, and Phyllis (2007) point out that the common personality of male perpetrators in domestic homicide cases have controlling personality. They are easily to get jealous, possessive, obsessive and dominating in the relationship.  Gittany as the perpetrator, tried to control his fiancé though installing software to her mobile phone to track and monitor her text messages. He also installed CCTV cameras inside and outside their apartment for spying. Moreover, Gittany told Ms. Harnum what clothes she could wear, where she could go and Ms. Harnum was not allowed to see her family without his permission when she was overseas. Moreover, Gittany tried to separate Ms. Harnum and her friends. Therefore, Ms. Harnum lost contact with all her close friends and was only in touch with a personal trainer and a counselor.

                 Most offenders in IPH cases have criminal records before killing. This is supported by Carcach and James’s (1997) study on IPH offenders. Nearly 40% male offenders have criminal history and the majority of these offenders had never been married and almost 8 out of 10 were not working at the time of the homicide. The offender Gittany in the case also has criminal history and was not married before.

                Studies found that 49% of the offenders were alcoholic (Campbell et al. 2007). Gittany, however, was not a problem drinker.