Andre Rebelo murder trial: Man accused of killing his mum Colleen reveals why he kept final meeting a secret

Andre Rebelo — the crypto trader accused of taking out $1.15m in life insurance on his mother and then murdering her — has been accused of fabricating a final emotional meeting with her to hide the fact he actually killed her. And, prosecutor Brett Tooker also accused the 28-year-old of taking not one but three policies out on Colleen Rebelo because “if you were going to kill your mother you wanted to make sure it was worth it.” In a dramatic day in WA’s Supreme Court, Mr Rebelo finished his evidence with a flat denial “on solemn oath” that he was Colleen Rebelo’s killer. Moments later, at the start of his cross-examination, Mr Rebelo was forced into more denials — that he had hidden vital information from his siblings and the police about seeing his mother on the last day of her life in May 2020. Mr Rebelo told the jury on Tuesday that meeting was normal — coffee, conversation about gardening and family. Prosecutor Brett Tooker asked why then had he not told his brothers Julian and Fabian, his twin sister Monique and the emergency services that he had seen her alive and well hours before her body was found in the shower of her Bicton home. “You were at your mother’s house for 45 minutes … you might have been the last person to see her alive … Did you tell your siblings that?,” Mr Tooker asked. “No one asked,” was Mr Rebelo’s reply. Asked about whether he informed paramedics or police at the scene, Mr Rebelo said he was “in shock and the police only asked a couple of questions”. “I wasn’t in a right state of mind to be thinking clearly,” he said. And Mr Rebelo was also asked about whether he had told his social media superstar partner Gracie Piscopo about his visit to the house on May 25, 2020 — including in a conversation secretly recorded by police some months later. “You were hiding this from your loved ones weren’t you … you knew that would implicate you in your mother’s death,” Mr Tooker asked. Mr Rebelo denied that he was. Quizzed by his own lawyer Tony Elliott about that secret recording, Mr Rebelo did admit that he had lied to Ms Piscopo about how much trouble with the law he was really in. Captured on the same day in 2020 that Mr Rebelo was arrested and charged with fraud relating to the insurance policies, the audio recorded an emotional Ms Piscopo trying to come to terms with also being quizzed by police herself. Mr Rebelo can be heard telling her he was being investigated for a “couple of small things”. In fact, police had evidence of fraudulently created documents and phone calls, in a bid to claim on a $500,000 insurance policy. “(She was) traumatised it is fair to say, and very upset — she was very upset at the time. I was trying to avoid making her even more upset,” Mr Rebelo said. “She was very upset, so a couple of small things sounds better than it was jailable offence.” At another point, Mr Rebelo was heard to say that “I promise I will get my money and leave the country before I go to jail.” Asked what money he was referring to, Mr Rebelo said he meant his cryptocurrency holdings. And asked whether he meant it, he said no. “I didn’t want to tell her I had been committing all this forging and all these illegal things.” Asked about a bizarre robotic phone message, purporting to be from Mrs Rebelo’s psychiatrist and left for RAC Insurance, Mr Rebelo admitted he had left it. And described how he had done it, using an online generator. “It gives you a voice recording into a file that you can replay,” he said. Asked about a series of lies given to police in interview, Mr Rebelo said he was “panicked”. “And prior to the interview I decide that anything to do with life insurance … I would just no to anything,” he said. But he insisted he was lying to cover up his fraud – not a murder. And after giving more than two days of evidence, Mr Elliott asked one final question. “On your solemn oath, did you kill your mother?” Mr Elliott asked. “No,” was Mr Rebelo’s answer. Later in the day — questioned at length about why he took out the three life insurance policies in three successive days a week before his mother died — Mr Rebelo stated repeatedly that he had done it at her behest. He said she had wanted to make sure that if she died, her mortgage was paid off and there was something left for her children. He claimed she asked him to find cover for up to $1.5 million. And that is what he was trying to do with the three different insurers. Mr Tooker suggested another proposition. “The reason you took out three policies ... you wanted to maximise the payout in the event of her death,” he said. You wanted more. You took out three insurance policies to ensure you would get a bigger payout. If you were going to kill your mother you wanted to make sure it was worth it.” Mr Rebelo replied: “Absolutely not”. The trial continues.