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HER mother always knew. From the moment Julie-Anne Hand was told her pregnant daughter’s body had been found in the Blue Mountains in January 2006, she was certain her son-in-law was guilty of the murder. She had already suspected that he had tried to poison her daughter, Jody Galante, then 26, but no one had believed her.

A devastated Mrs Hand had to spend the next five weeks pretending Mark Galante was innocent - comforting him about losing a wife, publicly supporting him and even holding his hand at Jody’s funeral - while police gathered evidence.

Yesterday, more than two years after her daughter was last seen, Mrs Hand cried and whispered “yes” in the Supreme Court as Galante was sentenced to 27 years’ jail, with a non-parole period of 20 years, for murdering his wife, who was three months pregnant. Galante, 29, wearing the same black suit as when he married Jody, did not react to the sentence. But Mrs Hand did.

Outside the court, she said: “We got justice for Jody and her baby. And although it won’t bring Jody back, he got one year for every year that he took - 26 for Jody and one for the baby. I’m more than happy with that.”

Mark and Jody Galante had been married since 2002 and had a two-year-old child. But the relationship was deeply troubled. Jody was upset by Mark’s heavy cannabis use and threatened to leave.

In an interview with the Herald this week, Mrs Hand revealed the pain she endured during her charade to help police. When police found a body they believed was Jody’s, “I knew she was gone, I just knew, and I knew it was him - I just knew it was.”

Julie-Anne Hand’s nightmare began when Galante called her on Saturday, January 7, 2006, to tell her Jody was missing. Galante told her he had last seen Jody before she went shopping at Parklea Markets. Police began investigating that day.

At a press conference the next Wednesday, Galante cried as he made a public plea to Jody: “We all love you. Please come home. We’re really worried about you.”

On the next Saturday, police told Mrs Hand they had found Jody’s body. She immediately knew Galante was the killer.

“When he said that he took their child to the park to feed the ducks on the day, I knew categorically that was a barefaced lie,” Mrs Hand said. “He just doesn’t go out in the sun. He hates the heat and wouldn’t have done that for any length of time and he tells us that he was there for two hours.”

Mrs Hand’s mind raced back to September 2005, when Jody ended up in hospital after eating a two lollies Galante had given her.

A doctor told her that her daughter had suffered some sort of drug psychosis brought on by a strong drug. “I know I have no evidence but I don’t think this was his first attempt on her life and nothing will ever convince me otherwise,” Mrs Hand said.

When the body was found, she told police of her suspicions about Galante and they told her they shared them. But they asked her to pretend that she thought Galante was innocent while they gathered more evidence.

“A policeman told me he knew how hard it was but said it would be helpful to the investigation, so I just had to find the strength to keep going,” Mrs Hand said.
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