Giesbrecht friend alleges affair, secret pregnancies in testimony

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This article was published 19/07/2016 (3723 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A day after his wife’s extramarital affair and secret pregnancies were alleged in court, Jeremy Giesbrecht is expected to take the witness stand in court Wednesday.

His wife of 17 years, Andrea Giesbrecht, 42, is accused of hiding infants’ decaying remains in a storage locker and has been charged with six counts of concealing a child’s body following the discovery of the remains in October 2014.

Depicted by the defence as a church-going soccer mom who did volunteer work and cared for her two children, Giesbrecht allegedly had a three-year affair and hid pregnancies even from her friends, court heard.

Three of Giesbrecht’s friends testified in front of provincial court Judge Murray Thompson Tuesday, one of them saying Giesbrecht told her she was pregnant a decade ago with a child fathered by a man she had allegedly been dating from 2005 to 2008.

Lyn Burdett, a Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries employee who then worked at a casino, testified she had provided Giesbrecht with an alibi during her affair with another casino employee.

“She told her husband she was going to Mahnomen (Minn.) with me, but she went to Gerald’s house,” Burdett told court. She testified Giesbrecht had been in a sexual relationship with Gerald Morrissey, a mutual friend of theirs who also worked at the McPhillips Station Casino.

“You didn’t think it was wrong to lie?” Defence lawyer Greg Brodsky asked during his cross-examination of the witness.

“No, I didn’t. She said so many bad words about her husband,” Burdett said.

Burdett said she noticed Giesbrecht appeared to be about six months pregnant around 2006, and said Giesbrecht told her she was pregnant with Gerald’s baby but later “she told me that she lost it.”

“She didn’t tell me no specifics and I wasn’t about to ask. I thought it was inconsiderate,” Burdett said under cross-examination.

Brodsky pointed out inconsistencies with some dates in Burdett’s police statement and testimony — the witness said she was nervous when she talked to police — and revealed it was Burdett who first approached police, offering information on Giesbrecht’s criminal case.

Burdett said she got to know Giesbrecht while seeing her daily at the casino starting in 2000. Giesbrecht admitted to having a gambling addiction when she pleaded guilty to an unrelated fraud charge this spring.

Burdett told court she also suspected Giesbrecht was pregnant in 2009 because she appeared to be gaining weight, but Giesbrecht never confirmed the pregnancy.

A pattern of Giesbrecht’s secrecy around pregnancy emerged through the testimony of two of Giesbrecht’s other friends, including the maid of honour at her wedding who testified she had no idea her friend was pregnant until the day Giesbrecht’s oldest son was born in 1997.

“I asked her why she didn’t tell me, and she said she thought she had more time to tell me, but that was all I can really remember,” said Heather MacQuarrie, who has known Giesbrecht since they were teenagers and still considers her a friend.

MacQuarrie helped plan Giesbrecht’s 1999 wedding, and said she remembers telling her friend she was “very surprised” not to have known she was pregnant while Giesbrecht and her husband were dating.

“If I recall, she might have just said she was scared,” MacQuarrie said.

Linda Malo, who met Giesbrecht while their sons were in school together more than 10 years ago and helped get her a job at a cleaning company, testified she had never seen Giesbrecht pregnant.

“I never, ever had a discussion with her about pregnancies, but Andrea always wore a black fleece sweater,” Malo told the court, saying the oversized piece of clothing hid Giesbrecht’s body and she saw her only twice without it over the years.

“It was kind of an ongoing thing, like with some of the other moms, because even in hot weather, she’d be wearing this black fleece sweater,” Malo said.

Previous testimony from experts suggested it was highly likely Giesbrecht is the mother of all six of the infants whose remains were found in the storage locker, and that her husband Jeremy was the father. DNA evidence was taken from a sanitary napkin seized from Andrea Giesbrecht’s home, and some of the Crown and defence lines of questioning have focused on whether other women could have been using Giesbrecht’s bathroom.

Regardless of the identities of the biological parents of the six infants found in the storage locker, the offence of concealing the body of a child carries a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment for each count.

The trial continues Wednesday, and Jeremy Giesbrecht is scheduled to testify despite his courtroom outburst Monday, which resulted in a sheriff’s officer being called.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay