Ex-lover of mother-of-four found dead in a bathtub says she saw a body in the same home SIX MONTHS before police made the grim discovery
- The body of 40-year-old mother was found decomposing in her bathtub in 2018
- Sarah Gatt is believed to have died some time in April 2017
- Her former boyfriend Andrew Baker has been charged with her murder
- Ms Gatt’s former lover says she saw a body in the bathtub months earlier
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 January 2018.
It’s believed she 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.
The corpse of Sarah Gatt (pictured as a younger woman) was discovered when police noticed a foul stench coming from a Kensington home
Ms Gatt’s former girlfriend, Leona Rei-Paku, 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 Mr Baker in July 2017 and when she asked about ‘my darling’ he said he thought Ms Gatt had been with her.
She said Baker told her that he and his friend had been living in Ms Gatt’s home for four weeks, and invited her back with them.
On the way there Baker told her ‘there’s a body in the bath’, she said.
‘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,’ she said.
The body of the 40-year-old mother (pictured) was found decomposing in the bathtub
Ms 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’.
Ms 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. It played on my mind a bit,’ she said.
She told the court she hadn’t asked the men whose body it was, but became frightened when Baker’s friend told her ‘we thought it was you’.
But Ms Rei-Paku broke down in court when asked why she hadn’t told anybody about seeing the body.
‘I can only put it down to the fact I wanted my drugs more. I didn’t care anymore,’ she said.
Ms 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.
