The trial of a Melbourne tattooist accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend has been aborted after a jury indicated they were unable to reach a verdict
For the past month, Andrew Baker has been facing trial in Victoria’s Supreme Court after pleading not guilty to killing Sarah Gatt in about April 2017.
On Tuesday, he returned before the court as the jury delivered a note saying they believed they were unlikely to reach a unanimous verdict without further distress.
“We believe we could discuss further but that will not assist,” they said.
The note came after the jury wrote on Monday to say they were in “deadlock” but were told to persevere in their deliberations by Justice Jane Dixon.
This time, however, Justice Dixon said she had no choice but to discharge the jury and thanked them for their efforts.
“In spite of the results I want to acknowledge on behalf of the community the efforts you’ve made,” she said.
The aborted trial marks the second time a jury has been unable to reach a unanimous verdict. A jury was also discharged for similar reasons in March last year.
The remains of Ms Gatt, a 39-year-old mother, were found under a blanket and household goods by police as they conducted a welfare check in January 2018.
Due to the extensive decomposition, no cause of death could be determined during her autopsy.
Over the course of the trial, prosecutors, led by Jeremy McWilliams, argued that Ms Gatt died during a “violent altercation” with Mr Baker after ending their relationship in early April the year prior.
The pair had been on-again and off-again, with Mr Baker “troubled” by her romantic involvement with another woman, Leona Rei-Paku, prosecutors alleged.
“This love triangle was resolved by murdering Ms Gatt in her home,” Mr McWilliams claimed.
“In his own words, Mr Baker ‘hated that Kiwi b—h’, she was; ‘trying to turn his girl into a lesbian’, and ‘stole her away’ from him.”
He told the jury that shortly after April 23, when police believe Ms Gatt’s died, Mr Baker allegedly began telling friends lies “unprompted” about her whereabouts, claiming she was locked up in rehab or a psych ward.
“The only reason you would set about that course of conduct was to conceal the fact Ms Gatt was dead and to conceal his responsibility,” he suggested.
Mr Baker’s barrister, John Saunders, suggested a different hypothesis – that his client was “embarrassed” to admit his girlfriend had left him for another woman.
He told the court that his client had stopped contacting Ms Gatt in April, not because he’d killed her but because he’d “realised” he lost her.
In his closing address, Mr Saunders said if the jury were satisfied Ms Gatt had been killed, how could they exclude the “reasonable hypothesis” that Ms Rei-Paku was involved because she was the last person to admit seeing her.
She is not accused of any wrongdoing.
The jury was told Mr Baker had confirmed to police that he had discovered the body months before they did but did not report it.
“I didn’t do it, it was already there when I turned up,” he told investigators.
“You want me to put my hand up, I’m telling you the truth, she was dead when I kicked in the door.”
Mr Saunders told the jury they might find this “shocking” but cautioned them to “put away preconceptions about how people normally behave”.
“I’m not asking you to like Andrew Baker,” he said.
He told the jury there was a complete lack of evidence about how Ms Gatt died, questioning how they could rule out misadventure, a medical issue or drug overdose.
Without any evidence to prove her death was a murder, he said the prosecution had asked the jury to draw inferences on his “strange behaviours” and suggested alternative explanations such as a fear he would be blamed.
“All the Crown seems to come up with is that she must have died in a violent episode … Our submission is that you don’t convict someone on the basis of something as flimsy as that,” he said.