The woman accused of concocting a fake online boyfriend for her ex-lover who died by suicide has sensationally claimed they both created the ‘character’ so they could be together.
In stunning evidence at the inquest into the suicide death of Renae Marsden, 20, her former girlfriend Camila Zeidan claimed they invented ‘Braydon Spiteri’ so they could still be together.
‘We both agreed we were never going to be accepted in a relationship, like, we weren’t ever going to be accepted together,’ Camila told the NSW Coroner’s Court to gasps on Tuesday.
‘So we created the character so that no one would find out … obviously a few times before, at school, she was accepted around me, in my life’.
Former best friends: Camilla Zeidan (right) is accused of inventing ‘Brayden’ Spiteri to catfish ex-girlfriend Renae (left)
Text messages shared between Renae Marsden and her ‘boyfriend’ Brayden, as read out at the inquest
Camila, now 27, and Renae, from Glenhaven in Sydney’s north-west, were in a relationship during their time at Mount St Benedict’s school about a decade ago.
The relationship fell apart but they remained friends, with Camila’s relationship with Renae described in court as ‘obsessive’ and ‘unrelenting’.
Prior to her death, Renae had been in a relationship with supposed prison inmate ‘Brayden Spiteri’ for more than a year.
But police have found no evidence Brayden ever existed, with his phone number registered in Camila’s name.
The inquest is investigating whether Renae had learned she was catfished when she died.
The court has heard Renae was told Brayden was serving a sentence at Goulburn prison but could not accept visitors.
The inquest heard more than 11,000 messages were shared between Renae and ‘Brayden’
Camila Zeidan, in ‘Soho’ shirt, claims she deleted the final text message she received from Renae Marsden ‘accidentally’ – but NSW police today took aim at her statements in court
On Tuesday afternoon, Camila admitted on August 5, the day she died, she texted Renae, as Brayden, saying: ‘I just can’t do this anymore.
‘I came back from holiday (in the United States) and I just couldn’t do this,’ she said.
Suspected ‘catfisher’ Camilla Zeidan told the inquest that on August 5, the day Renae she died, she texted her as Brayden, saying: ‘I just can’t do this anymore
Renae’s parents Teresa and Mark Marsden held hands as they left the inquest on Tuesday
Asked how Renae responded, Camila said: ‘(Renae) just felt she didn’t know where she belonged and she just didn’t know what she wanted in her life anymore.
‘To me I took that as a threat because she was always making threats about how she didn’t like her life and wasn’t happy in it’.
‘I had been away – I just didn’t want to do this character thing with her anymore’.
The court heard Renae exchanged text messages with both Camila, and the persona of Brayden, on the day she disappeared at The Gap, in Sydney’s east.
That day, witnesses said Renae was emotional at work and also had a 90 second phone call with Goulburn prison, where Brayden was supposedly imprisoned.
Camila was today asked by counsel assisting the inquest: ‘So why didn’t you sit down with her and say I didn’t want to do this anymore?’
She claimed: ‘I have tried’.
At one point, a relative of Ms Marsden’s walked from the court in tears, with counsel assisting the inquest at one point turning around to ‘shush’ the victim’s large family.
Magistrate Elaine Truscott asked Camila a series of questions about who had purchased and set up the phone SIM Camila used for ‘Brayden’.
Camila claimed both she and Renae did, but told the court she did not remember the date or time, or what shop it was, in 2011.
The inquest has heard that ‘Brayden Spiteri’ was a concocted to ‘catfish’ Renae Marsden. This photo above is one picture that Renae thought was Brayden (it is not)
She claimed when they were both together, ‘Renae would use’ the phone as well, but just how was not clear.
‘She’d hold it and I don’t know what she’d use it for, she’d hold it, put it in her bag,’ Camila said.
Camila stepped into the witness box on Tuesday afternoon after shortly after her lawyer told the court his client had objected to give evidence.
‘My instructions are Ms Zeidan objects to giving evidence,’ her lawyer Brett Longville said.
Camila then left the courtroom but quickly returned, took to the witness box and was subjected to forensic questioning by Magistrate Elaine Truscott and counsel assisting Sasha Harding for half an hour.
Earlier, the inquest heard that Camila denied inventing Brayden in her initial police interview, in late August 2013.
But she later changed her story and claimed the victim had ‘wanted’ her to pretend to be her boyfriend.
In her initial police interview, 20 days following Renae’s death, police told Camila call logs indicated she was, in fact, Brayden.
Camila denied that: ‘No. I know that a lot of people think that I am (Brayden),’ she said. ‘Everyone is against me’.
‘I wish I was where Renae is now. Wherever she is, I just want to have the peace she is feeling now. We could be together.’
‘Do you think she is really gone?’
But Camila changed her tune during a police search of her home in September 2013.
She admitted ‘I was sending the text messages to Renae’ prior to travelling to the United States in March.
‘She wanted me to pretend to be Brayden,’ Camila said.
The police officer said ‘why, why did she want you to pretend to be Brayden?’
Camila replied: ‘I don’t know. I just did it because she wanted me to …. I didn’t do anything else, what’s going to happen to me?’
Detective Inspector Brett Bell told the inquest a text message exchange read out loud in court did not show the relationship was a ‘pretend scenario’.
In text exchanges over several years, Renae showed some scepticism of Brayden and took issue with apparent contradictions in his stories.
‘I don’t know what to believe with you …. you continue to break my heart over and over again,’ she said in one series of messages.
From Renae’s final text message to claims of Camila ‘seeing’ Brayden – accused catfisher’s first police interview
In her initial police interview, Camila Zeidan told police the last message she received from the suicide victim said: ‘I’ll always love you’.
But she claimed she ‘accidentally’ deleted the 20-year-old’s last message when she tried to forward it to the victim’s mother, Teresa Marsden.
Asked why, Camila said: ‘I don’t know, my phone does that sometimes, I was trying to send it to (the girl’s mother) Teresa but it deleted it instead’.
She told the officer Renae had texted her ‘something like, ‘you’ll always be my best friend, I’ll always love you, hope one day you’ll forgive me.’
The court heard that Camila told a police officer she didn’t believe the suicide victim’s situation ‘was serious’ when she received the final text that evening.
But that afternoon, Camila had allegedly messaged the young woman’s mother while under the guise of Renae’s faked boyfriend Brayden, the inquest heard.
The text warned Renae’s mother Teresa to ‘sort your daughter out’ as she was suicidal.
On Tuesday, Detective Senior Constable Brett Bell branded statements Camila had provided to police variously as ‘incorrect’ and as making ‘no sense’.
Counsel assisting the inquest Sasha Harding asked Mr Bell if that was ‘possibly incongruous?’
Renae Marsden’s parents Theresa and Mark, with their daughter Monique, speaking to media outside the inquest
Mr Bell told the inquest: ‘Yes, I wouldn’t believe that to be correct because it was enough for Brayden’s phone to message that there was a threat to kill herself, yes’.
In the police interview, Camila also described her relationship with Renae as also not being sexual in nature.
But an email from Renae to Camila which offered ‘phone sex’ during a holiday and sex ‘in bed’ later was different to what she had told police, Detective Bell said.
Camila also claimed to police that she had once met Renae’s boyfriend once at The Brewery, a pub in Windsor, in Sydney’s north-west, and that he had long hair.
‘It’s my opinion that never occurred,’ Mr Bell said, adding that Camila’s description of Brayden was different to the pictures of him that Renae had in her possession.
Camila’s claims to police that Renae had got a SIM card for Brayden also came under scrutiny.
Camila claimed to officers that Renae had wanted to buy Brayden a SIM card, but couldn’t buy one at the store because she had no identification.
Camila claimed that’s why her contact details were associated with Brayden’s SIM card.
But Officer Bell said that explanation ‘doesn’t make sense’ as prepaid SIMs don’t require identification to purchase from a store, only upon registration online.
Camila was in court on Tuesday with her father, as were Renae’s mother, Teresa, father, Mark and extended family.
The magistrate presiding over the inquest, Elaine Truscott, apologised to Camila and her family for harrowing scenes that occurred outside court on Monday.
A friend of Camila’s fell over in a media scrum and members of Renae’s family screamed at Camila and her supporters as they ran to their car.
Camila’s lawyer, Brett Longville, told the court it was ‘quite unsavoury’, leading Ms Truscott to ‘extend my apologies’ to the family.
‘I did not subpoena her to be pilloried by any member of the community and to have to run a gauntlet of media,’ the magistrate said.
The inquest has been adjourned, with Ms Zeidan expected to give evidence on Wednesday.
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