A woman who disappeared 10 years ago could have been kidnapped or ended up anonymously in a psychiatric ward, her husband’s murder trial has heard.
John Charles Giannasca, 56, is accused of murdering Carmel Giannasca hours after a young girl accused his father of sexual abuse.
Mrs Giannasca was 33 when she went missing on or around January 12, 2002. Her body has never been found.
Giannasca’s barrister, David Dalton SC, told a Supreme Court jury on Tuesday it would also be fair to presume her dead.
“There’s all sorts of permutations,” Mr Dalton said in his closing submission.
But there is no presumption that she is living on a “desert island”, he went on to say.
Neither the prosecution nor the defence has suggested she may have committed suicide.
“John Giannasca doesn’t know what happened to her,” Mr Dalton said.
“And strange things, we all know, do happen to people who disappear.”
Giannasca took the stand last week and denied causing any physical harm to his wife.
He also said he didn’t know of the sexual abuse allegations until a year after Mrs Giannasca’s disappearance.
Police interviewed the girl in January 2003 when she alluded to telling Mrs Giannasca about the abuse.
Expert witnesses have criticised the types of questions police used that led to the girl’s revelations.
She also took the stand in December and said she couldn’t remember informing Mrs Giannasca the night before her disappearance.
Crown prosecutor Eric Balodis, in his own closing submission, said the girl’s embarrassment prevented her remembering the events as a child and as a young adult.
“(Her) wall is still up,” Mr Balodis said.
The court also heard the girl confided in a school friend a year after Mrs Giannasca disappeared.
But Mr Dalton said the abuse she referred to took place after Mrs Giannasca disappeared, since the girl had also mentioned subsequent incidents of abuse in police interviews.
Mr Balodis wrapped up his closing submission with evidence from Mrs Giannasca’s father, who said he passed on information from police that someone had spotted her in a car.
When the father told Giannasca, he allegedly responded by saying, “It can’t be.”
Mr Dalton is expected to finish his closing submission on Wednesday.
Views: 0