Along the row of nondescript narrow Victorian terraces there is one that stands pinkly out. Loudly rendered in two-tone bright pink and red ochre, with bougainvillea cascading from lace ironwork, and a sign that reads “Casa del Mario”, its style might be described as Gay Italianate. Which is exactly what it is.
It was from this rosy residence in Sydney’s inner-city suburb of Alexandria that the Italian man was heard sonorously singing on Easter Saturday morning of April 7, 2007. The neighbours were used to his gusty operatic renditions. But then there was a sudden silence. Soon after, the morning was shattered by a terrible noise coming from the house, a wailing and screaming that brought the street to a startled stop. Mario Guzzetti, 72, had been singing Andrea Bocelli’s Con Te Partirò (Time to Say Goodbye) when he suddenly died.
What infinitesimal degrees of luck and accident separate a routine morning in an ordinary suburb from one that starts a descent into the nine circles of hell.
The argument that morning was over carrot juice. It was hardly the kind of domestic spat that would drive a man to murder. But by the end of that morning, Leung would be in prison, charged with the murder of a man he had loved very much. And this would be the beginning of a terrifying, six-year rollercoaster ride through the NSW courts.
The fastidious pink house Philip Leung shared with Guzzetti became a crime scene. And Leung would go on to become, perhaps, the unluckiest man in NSW.
Talk to me baby