Gerardus Gerrit Heijne is on trial in the Supreme Court after pleading not guilty to the wilful murder of his long-term partner, Frank Cianciosi.
Mr Heijne and Mr Cianciosi were the WA master franchisees of the chicken products chain Lenard’s and had been together for 25 years, until Mr Cianciosi was found dead in their East Perth penthouse on January 3 last year.
Prosecutor, Bruno Fiannaca told the court that the relationship between Mr Heijne and Mr Cianciosi had soured in the months before the death, after Mr Heijne had become involved with a 19-year-old man, whose name has been suppressed by the court.
According to Mr Fiannaca, Mr Heijne’s relationship with Mr X is pivotal to the case.
‘The evidence points to the accused wanting a different life and Mr Cianciosi was not in that life,’ he told the court.
During his two days on the stand, Mr X testified that while there had been a relationship between himself and Mr Heijne and they had ‘experimented sexually’, the two had not had sex and he did not consider himself to be gay.
On the first day of the defence case, Mr Heijne took to the stand.
He refuted claims that his relationship with Mr X had not been sexual and said that Mr Cianciosi was aware of the relationship.
Mr Heijne detailed how he and Mr Cianciosi had held a commitment ceremony early in their relationship that they considered ‘like a marriage’ and had exchanged gold wedding bands.
He said that he and Mr Cianciosi were not publicly open about their sexuality and only their family and friends were aware they were a couple.
‘Frank just wasn’t comfortable,’ he said in his statement. ‘I found it very frustrating because I am proud of who I am.’
According to Mr Heijne, around the time of his death Mr Cianciosi had been taking anti-depressants and was working less.
‘He couldn’t handle the pressure of the business anymore… My workload doubled.’
Mr Heijne told the court that on January 3, 2008 he woke, went to the gym and then to work at the Lenard’s offices in East Perth.
He said he had needed Mr Cianciosi to come to the offices to complete financial tasks he was not able to do and so had called him twice.
‘He kept saying he would come in but he didn’t come in… I called back to find out why he hadn’t come in and he said “Why don’t you come home?‒
Mr Heijne told the court he went back to the couple’s penthouse at around midday and a disagreement developed between the two.
‘Frank hit me to the right side of the face with the back of his hand… It stung, his ring connected with my face,’ he said.
Mr Heijne alleged Mr Cianciosi had then grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him towards himself and upwards.
‘I got frightened and scared… I grabbed him by the throat… I grabbed him hard and extended my arm to push him away…’
On realising Mr Cianciosi was dead, Mr Heijne said he had pulled the covers over him to ‘make him comfortable’, turned the air-conditioning down to 16 degrees ‘because he liked it super cold’, changed his shirt and left the apartment.
The trial continues.
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