Dennis James Pietrobon was charged with murdering Nicole Cartwright in October 2018
A man awaiting trial for murdering a woman during a meth-fuelled ‘puff and play’ session gave a fellow inmate a list of girls he could ‘have’ before he killed himself in jail.
Dennis James Pietrobon, 52, was accused of killing Nicole Cartwright on her 32nd birthday, before dumping her body in a children’s playground on Sydney’s lower north shore.
He was found dead in his cell at the privately-operated Parklea Correctional Centre over Easter before the full details of his alleged crimes could be revealed.
A fellow inmate who befriended Pietrobon at Parklea has told Daily Mail Australia the divorced father-of-two gave him a hand-written list of names and phone numbers while they were in custody.
‘One day he walked up to me when I was in the wing,’ the former prisoner said. ‘I was sitting down and he handed me a list of phone numbers.
‘I said, “What’s this?” He said, “You’re getting out soon, it’s a list of girls”. I said, “OK, what do I do? Do you want me to meet them and tell them something?”
‘He says, “No, no, no – you can just have them”.’
‘He literally said I can “have” these girls, like it’s the Middle Ages and women are objects. I brushed it off like most things you hear in prison.’
Nicole Cartwright was killed in 2018 after meeting Dennis James Pietrobon for a ‘puff and play’ sexual encounter. A fellow inmate who befriend Pietrobon in prison said the divorced father-of-two gave him a list of women’s names and phone numbers while they were in custody
He was found dead in his cell at the privately-operated Parklea Correctional Centre (pictured) at Easter before the full details of his alleged crimes could be revealed
Police alleged Ms Cartwright was killed on October 1, 2018 and that Pietrobon dumped her body two days later in Buffalo Creek Reserve at Hunters Hill (pictured)
The prisoner, who was released in September last year, said he did not know how Pietrobon met the women and he had not attempted to call any of them.
‘There were around four to five numbers on a torn-off piece of paper,’ he said. ‘He was talking about how I can use these women easily and ways to do so.’
Police alleged Ms Cartwright was killed on October 1, 2018 and that Pietrobon dumped her body two days later in Buffalo Creek Reserve at Hunters Hill.
Pietrobon had met Ms Cartrwright through a dating app and allegedly turned violent during a drug-fuelled ‘puff and play’ encounter in which meth was traded for sex.
A council worker discovered Ms Cartwright’s body, wrapped in a bed sheet with her hands bound.
Pietrobon’s fingerprints were found on tape binding Ms Cartwright’s wrists, as well as a shirt discarded near her body.
His DNA was also discovered on the garbage bin that he allegedly used to transport her body to the park, police said at the time.
NSW Police launched Strike Force Winkurra to investigate Ms Cartwright’s death and in particular her interactions with men through dating apps and fetish websites.
Homicide Squad commander Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty had urged people not to ‘judge’ the ‘personal choices’ of using such dating sites.
Pietrobon had met Ms Cartrwright through a dating app and allegedly turned violent during a drug-fuelled ‘puff an play’ encounter in which meth is traded for sex
NSW Police are pictured in Buffalo Creek Reserve at Hunters Hill following the discovery of Ms Cartwright’s body on October 3, 2018. She had been bound and wrapped in a bed sheet
‘While some people may judge these acts as salacious let’s not forget there was a young woman who was brutalised and murdered and then dumped in a park in a callous act,’ he said.
Prosecutor Nicholas Leach told In Burwood Local Court in February that Ms Cartwright had been discarded like garbage.
‘The deceased met up with [Pietrobon] to engage in a puff and play session,’ Mr Leach said. ‘The accused has then become extremely violent and struck the deceased to the left side of the face.
‘He then placed the body in a council bin and left the scene after being possibly spooked by another member of the public.’
Following an intensive investigation by police, Dennis James Pietrobon (pictured second from left) was charged with the murder of Nicole Cartwright
In September last year, Hells Angels associate Cooper John Gavellas, 22, faced court after allegedly bashing Pietrobon behind bars, leaving him with significant injuries to his face and neck.
Pietrobon’s former prison mate, who wished to be known only as Ben, said he met Pietrobon shortly after that alleged attack.
‘He had a black eye, he had cuts all over his face and he was just released from hospital,’ Ben said. ‘I said, “I’m sorry this happened”. He appreciated that and we became friends.
A former friend of Pietrobon’s previously said the accused killer had been unemployed and sleeping rough around the city’s inner west in the years after the breakdown of his marriage.
‘He worked for Sydney Trains but after he lost his job he ended up sleeping in his car and showering at his local gym,’ the friend said.
Pietrobon’s fingerprints were found on tape binding Ms Cartwright’s wrists, as well as a shirt discarded near her body. His DNA was also discovered on the garbage bin that he allegedly used to transport her body to the park
‘In the last two or three years something happened and he went weird. After his split he had another girlfriend but that ended badly too.
‘I never thought he was a bad person, just someone who had really lost their way.’
Daily Mail Australia understands Pietrobon was nonetheless known to drive a black Mercedes Benz.
Ben, who was serving a sentence for major fraud, said Pietrobon claimed to have been in prison for minor drug offences, rather than murdering a woman.
‘He was actually very entrepreneurial,’ he said. ‘He’d done very well in his life or he had before some incidents took place.
‘He was very intelligent. Certainly not what people would imagine a murderer is like. I think he was just on drugs and he acted out of character.’
Ben said Pietrobon encouraged him to invest in a plan to crystalise imported sugar which he wanted to dye blue and sell as a novelty product which would appear like the meth that featured in the TV series Breaking Bad.
‘He thought it would be a great business idea,’ Ben said. ‘He wanted it to come with these gold-plated tongs and you could put it in your coffee and feel like some drug dealer.
‘That was the idea basically. It was a bit silly. He drew up contracts and he got someone to witness it.
‘I don’t know if I was particularly interested in it but there is literally nothing else to do in prison so you just talk and you talk and you talk.’
Ben spent a couple of months regularly talking to Pietrobon before he was released.
‘He used to help a lot of people, there’s a lot of illiterate people in prison so he’d write them letters, he’d help them out,’ Ben said. ‘He was good like that.
Ben, who was serving a sentence for major fraud, said Pietrobon claimed to have been in prison for minor drug offences, rather than murdering a woman. Parklea prison is pictured
‘He was actually a gentleman. I know that sounds bad to hear but he was the nicest person in the wing.’
Pietrobon had told him to research his crimes when he got out of jail. ‘He said, “When you look me up you’ll find out”,’ Ben said.
‘I got out and I looked it up and I was, “My god, what is going on in this guy’s head?”‘
At Pietrobon’s last court appearance his lawyer argued investigators had not established Ms Cartwright’s cause of death.
‘The Crown cannot say what my client actually did,’ she said. ‘It is on the Crown case they meet up with for what the Crown says was consensual and highly risky sexual conduct to consume methylamphetamine.’
‘The DPP need to prove he caused the act and that he intended she die. A highly experienced pathologist cannot say how she died.’