Now to WA’s Supreme Court, where Instagram model Grace Piscopo has just taken the stand for the second day of giving evidence in defence of her former boyfriend, Andre Rebelo.
Rebelo is accused of murdering his mother for money to keep up his and Piscopo’s “fake perfect life”, as the prosecutor has put it.
Rebelo’s lawyer Anthony Elliott is taking Piscopo through the day Colleen Rebelo, 58, was found dead inside her Bicton home on May 25, 2020.
Grace Piscopo arrives at court for Andre Rebelo trial, November 19 2024.Credit: 9 News Perth
Piscopo, who is not alleged to have done anything wrong, has recalled she and her young son were at home, with Piscopo’s cousin coming over for a playdate with her own son around lunch time.
She said Rebelo went out to run errands, leaving their home around mid morning and returning around lunch time.
“He said he had to run errands and go to the post office to drop off packages ... he said he was going to drop off clothes for [his younger brother] Fabian ... at his mum’s house,” she said.
Elliott is now showing Piscopo a barrage of calls and texts she sent to Rebelo over a 45-minute period while he was out which included messages saying ‘Answer your f--king phone’, ‘Where are you’, and ‘Omg I swear to God Andre’.
Prosecutors allege Rebelo was murdering his mother at this time.
“He had a habit of keeping his phone on silent, so I got angry when he didn’t pick up. I couldn’t reach him and I was angry,” Piscopo said.
Asked why she was trying so hard to reach Rebelo, she said she thought he was coming home to see her cousin and was trying to figure out where he was.
She recalled eventually speaking to him on the phone.
“He just came home and then my cousin was there so we played with the kids and then we were talking about lunch,” she said.
“[He was] just ordinary.”
Piscopo was then asked about the day Rebelo was arrested in September 2020 on suspicion of forging his mother’s life insurance policies and claims in the wake of her sudden and unexplained death.
She recalled she was getting her nails done when she received the call from police, who asked her to go to the police station.
“It was a traumatic day,” she said, claiming she was at the station for eight or nine hours and not given anything to eat or drink.
Piscopo’s evidence in chief has finished. Prosecutor Brett Tooker will now cross-examine her.