Andre Rebelo murder trial: Secret recordings of son accused of murdering his mother Colleen played to court

“It wasn’t like I killed someone to try and get their life insurance.” That was the clear denial issued by Andre Rebelo to his twin sister and his social media superstar partner – two years before that is exactly what WA homicide detectives accused of him doing to his mother Colleen. In what will be the final day of the prosecution case against Mr Rebelo, the detective in charge of the case – Detective Jarrod Manson – was called as their final witness. Through him, never-before-heard surveillance tapes – produced by secret microphones and cameras placed into Mr Rebelo’s home in September 2020 – were played to the jury. And the three recordings revealed the emotional and disbelieving reaction to Mr Rebelo being accused of fraud, over claims he had attempted to make on life insurance policies he had taken out in the week before Mrs Rebelo died. Mr Rebelo has now formally admitted those allegations, in guilty pleas taken before the murder trial began. And in one of the recordings, made on September 16, 2020, Mr Rebelo can be heard tentatively admitting to sending documents that “weren’t 100 per cent legitimate” to Ms Piscopo. “The insurance company was being so sh*t and they weren’t going to accept the document — you know the policy was still valid — so I tried to change the date on something,” he said at another point. “Why! Why would you do that. (I) Just wanna cry — I guess we’ll have to talk to a lawyer or something,” Ms Piscopo responded. “You gonna go to jail?” Mr Rebelo says he was confident he wouldn’t. “Are you really that confident they don’t have any evidence on you,” Ms Piscopo said at one point. “Why were they asking me about $500,000? “They’re looking at you with a looking glass and they would’ve seen $500,000 — mum just died — and he’s trying to get life insurance. The ongoing audio revealed Ms Piscopo’s continuing fear of her partner going to jail, her subsequent life as a single mother and the damage to her reputation. “What if he goes to jail. I’m gonna be a single mum,” she said. “I had nothing to distract me. I just had to sit there in that quiet room by myself with no-one to talk to just thinking of the worst possible outcome “This isn’t okay — what if it gets out — what if it got leaked. What if someone says something, that’s my reputation.” The recorded conversations also circled around why homicide detectives were investigating, interviewing and seizing devices. Mr Rebelo said he was told by police “its just about our badge”. “This is me sitting there thinking they’re trying to frame Andre for murdering his mum to try and get her frigging money,” Ms Piscopo then said. In fact, Operation Ekans was a homicide probe, which resulted in Mr Rebelo being charged with the murder of his mother in 2022. At one point in the past midnight conversation, Ms Piscopo said that she “was trying to think what you were even doing that morning” – of May 25, 2020, when Mrs Rebelo died. Earlier evidence showed that multiple calls and texts from Ms Piscopo to Mr Rebelo went unanswered that morning. “I went down to the post office for half an hour,” he told her. The following day, the recording devices at Mr Rebelo’s Coogee home picked up another conversation with Ms Piscopo and his sister Monique, where the police investigation was discussed. “It wasn’t like I killed someone to try and get their life insurance,” he told the pair. “Andre, you’ve done nothing,” his sister later said. Mr Rebelo denies murdering his mother, with no cause of her death ever discovered. The trial had earlier heard that in the years up to May 2020, Mr Rebelo and his partner and social media influencer Gracie Piscopo appeared to the world to be living a luxurious and successful life in Perth – but were in fact riddled with debt Mr Rebelo owed more than $40,000 – mainly on a credit card that had been cancelled, and a personal with the ANZ Bank which had been called in. Debt collectors spent months – and dozens of phone calls – trying to get the loan paid down. And when Mr Rebelo finally did come to an arrangement to pay off the $33,000 debt – to pay off half up front and then monthly instalments – the first two payments were dishonoured. In his savings accounts, at June 2020, Mr Rebelo had $17.58 in one account, and $23.82 in another. Tables shown to the jury showed that Ms Piscopo’s debts were even bigger. In three years, her total assets had reduced from more than $10,000 in credit to more than $70,000 in debt – mainly due to the purchase of Range Rover Evoque car. And by June 2020, the pair in total owed more than $112,000. The trial continues.