Slain man’s gangster link

’Break legs’ threat after heavy gambling losses

A GOLD Coast marketing manager allegedly slain in an execution-style murder said Sydney-based gangsters threatened to “break his legs” after he bragged about secret horse racing tips they’d given him, a court has been told.

Philip Carlyle, 48, was shot dead at point-blank range in April 1997 in a soundproof plant room at the offices of Gold Coast IT start-up Atnet, where he worked.

His business partner, Neil Andrew Pentland, 72, is accused of firing four bullets into the 48-year-old father’s head in a “methodical execution”. He has pleaded not guilty to murder in the Brisbane Supreme Court.

Crown Prosecutor David Meredith claims Pentland and Mr Carlyle’s partnership had “deteriorated”.

He said Mr Carlyle insisted on taking trips overseas and was having an online romance with a woman in the US.

Pentland’s wife Dianne

Pentland gave evidence on Tuesday of Mr Carlyle’s “email flirtation” with the overseas businesswoman, which was discovered after she requested copies of the 48-year-old’s emails be diverted to her.

Mrs Pentland said in evidence she told her husband about the romance and he replied: “I don’t wish to know anything about it, he’s a fool”.

Pentland’s barrister Saul Holt QC has submitted Mr Carlyle ran a number of failed businesses and received many threats to his life.

The judge-alone trial on Tuesday heard evidence from former Bond University professor Raymond McNamara, who came to know Mr Carlyle through a mutual friend, who was providing the man with financial advice.

The court heard Mr McNamara told police when he was interviewed in 1998 that Mr Carlyle told him he “was a heavy gambler in the past”, who bet between $50,000$100,000 on a single race.

“He said a bookmaker gave him tips from a gangster in Sydney,” Mr McNamara explained to officers in 1998.

The court heard Mr McNamara had also told police Mr Carlyle said he lost money after he “got too big for his boots” and the bookmaker gave him bad tips.

Mr Carlyle allegedly claimed he had a visit from two men who told him they would

“break his legs” if he bet on any horses linked to the Sydney bookmaker, the court heard.

Pentland’s son Adam Pentland told the court his father “didn’t take” the discovery of Mr Carlyle’s body “well”, after it was found covered in blood in a soundproof plant room at Atnet’s Robina office.

“He became stressed out and agitated and, kind of, started whimpering and crying,” Adam Pentland said. “Now that sounds, I guess, really strange but stress affects my dad in a strange kind of, way.”

The trial continues.