Perth man Andre Rebelo planning to appeal his conviction for murdering mother Colleen
Andre Rebelo was jailed in April for murdering his mother Colleen Rebelo. (Facebook)
In short:
A Perth cryptocurrency investor convicted of killing his mother to claim her life insurance is hoping to appeal his murder conviction.
Andre Rebelo's lawyer claims the case was based on circumstantial evidence and there was no reliable proof he was present when she died.
What's next?
His lawyers have until September 25 to finalise their appeal submission.
A Perth man who killed his mother to claim on her life insurance policies in what the judge described as a "monstrous" crime is planning to appeal his conviction.
Supermarket delivery driver turned cryptocurrency investor Andre Rebelo was found guilty last year of murdering Colleen Rebelo, whose body was found under a running shower in her home in the riverside suburb of Bicton in May 2020.
He was jailed for at least 25 years, with Justice Bruno Fiannaca labelling his actions as "a premeditated offence, a monstrous act that was integral to a fraudulent scheme".
But documents lodged in the Court of Appeal by his lawyers claim Ms Rebelo, 58, died of natural causes and Rebelo could not have killed her because there was no reliable evidence he was in the area at the time.
Prosecutors said Colleen Rebelo was killed by her son for financial gain. (Supplied: LinkedIn)
The evidence against Rebelo at trial was largely circumstantial, with a coronial inquest unable to determine Ms Rebelo's cause of death.
Prosecutors claimed he had choked or strangled her, then put her body in the shower "to make it look like she died of natural causes".
His motive was to claim more than $1 million on life insurance policies he had taken out in her name, to alleviate the financial difficulties he faced with his partner, social influencer Gracie Piscopo, after he had made significant losses trading in cryptocurrencies.
Andre Rebelo with his former partner, Gracie Piscopo. (Instagram)
But a forensic pathologist testified the position of Ms Rebelo's body indicated she could have collapsed after suffering a cardiac episode.
Timing doesn't stack up: Defence
Mobile phone tower records tendered at his trial showed Rebelo had been at his mother's home between 10.33am and 11:40am on the day she died.
At about 2.20pm her body was found under the shower by Rebelo's younger brother Fabian, who told the trial the shower had been running at a "regular [shower] temperature".
Colleen Rebelo's body was found in the shower of her Bicton home. (Supplied: Supreme Court of Western Australia)
In the appeal papers, defence lawyer Sitara Grey said Rebelo's other brother Julian had testified the Bicton home's shower storage tank allowed 30 to 40 minutes' hot water in total, meaning the hot water to the shower must have been turned on by 1:50pm at the latest.
"In the absence of some other person entering the dwelling, the only person who could have turned on the hot water in the shower was Ms Rebelo herself," the documents state.
"She could not have done that if she was killed by the appellant before 11.40am.
"That would leave an event such as cardiac arrhythmia or an anaphylactic episode (or similar) as the only plausible cause of death."
Rebelo's defence team has been granted leave until 4pm on September 25 to finalise its appeal submission.
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