Ex-lover of alleged murder victim Sarah Gatt says accused showed her decomposing body in bathtub
The former lover of Melbourne woman Sarah Gatt says she saw a dead body in her girlfriend’s bathtub six months before it was found by police.
The body of the 40-year-old mother was found decomposing in the bathtub of her Kensington unit in early January 2018. It is believed Gatt died some time in April 2017.
Her former boyfriend Andrew Baker has been charged with her murder and is facing a hearing in Melbourne magistrates court this week.
Gatt’s former girlfriend Leona ReiPaku last saw her in mid-April 2017 and says she made several attempts to contact her in the following months but they went unanswered.
She says she went to visit Baker in July 2017 and, when she asked about “my darling”, he said he thought Gatt had been with her. Rei-Paku said Baker told her he and his friend had been living in Gatt’s home for four weeks – and they invited her back with them.
On the way there, Baker told her “there’s a body in the bath”, she told the court. “Andy asked if I wanted a cuppa. He said go have a look at the body. I still didn’t know whether to believe him.”
Rei-Paku said she went upstairs to the bathroom and saw a sheet.
“I lifted the sheet up to have a look and there was a kind of foot or something sticking up,” she said. “He goes, ‘See how it’s sort of black’ and he pulled the sheet right back.”
Rei-Paku said Baker told her they had been there for four weeks and were “just going to clean it up and throw it out”. “I don’t know if the body was real or not,” she said. “It played on my mind a bit.”
She told the court she had not asked the men whose body it was but became frightened when Baker’s friend told her “we thought it was you”.
Rei-Paku broke down in court when asked why she had not told anybody about seeing the body. “I can only put it down to the fact I wanted my drugs more, I didn’t care any more,” she said.
Rei-Paku said it had been a shock to her system but she was now trying to sort out her mental health with medication and stop taking ice and marijuana, both of which she had been using since she was 14.
The hearing is expected to continue on Wednesday.