Tarantino not guilty of murdering Sydney schoolgirl
A MAN accused of slaying a Sydney schoolgirl two decades ago has been acquitted of her murder.
Vinzent Tarantino denied killing 12-year-old Quanne Diec, who vanished after leaving her Granville home on her way to class in 1998.
The Supreme Court jury found the 52-year-old not guilty after deliberating for nearly six days.
Quanne's body has never been found.
During the seven-week trial, a neighbour told police she saw a girl get into a white van on the morning of July 27, 1998 and the Crown alleged Tarantino was behind the wheel.
The former Kings Cross bouncer testified that he was driving that van through the area at the time but actually picked up a petite sex worker named Dee, which the Crown labelled a fake alibi.
Tarantino dismissed evidence from his associate Geoffrey Maurer who said the ex-security guard revealed he'd murdered "a little Asian girl" during a botched kidnapping for ransom bid.
He said Dee was just one of the "party girls", models, strippers, and some "working girls" he used to meet for morning dalliances because they worked night shifts.
Tarantino said at the time he'd been in a love triangle with Dee and his then girlfriend Laila Faily, who were colleagues at Sydney's famous brothel A Touch Of Class.
Ms Faily has testified that Tarantino once told her he raped and killed Quanne, while he also picked her up in a white van at night before driving into bushland south of Sydney and offloading a wheelie bin.
Tarantino labelled this a complete lie, saying rather than hiding Quanne's body inside the garbage bin, he'd actually hidden three guns and a Tupperware container full of cocaine he needed to bury.
Tarantino claims he initially confessed to Quanne's cold case murder in 2016 because he was terrified of being assassinated by Rebels bikies and wanted to be locked up for protection after witnessing a triple murder at the Blackmarket Nightclub in 1997.
Experts told the court Tarantino was probably suffering from psychotic delusions when he walked into Surry Hills police station in 2016 and made the admission.
At the time Tarantino also called up his older brother and said he was about to turn himself in for a homicide, the court heard.
"I did a horrible thing that's going to affect everyone," he allegedly told his brother.
"I killed a kid Alan, I'm f***ed".
Tarantino's theatrical, often rambling testimony had to be cut short multiple times by the judge and at one point he was ordered from the witness box after an outburst in which he exclaimed: "your Honour, they've perverted the course of justice!"
"You're doing a good job of convicting yourself," Justice Robert Beech-Jones told him after the jury was asked to leave the courtroom.
Tarantino also told members of Quanne's family sitting in the public gallery they had been "misled."
