HITMAN TRIAL TYCOON FREED
Jury can’t agree on claim that millionaire had Scots dad shot in front of son
AN AUSTRALIAN tycoon accused of ordering the murder of a Scots dad has walked free after the jury failed to reach a verdict.
A former friend claimed millionaire Ron Medich paid him more than £300,000 to hire the hitman who shot businessman Michael McGurk in front of his nine-year-old son.
But after deliberating for 13 days, the jury yesterday told the judge they were still deadlocked and he discharged them. Medich, 69, is likely to face a retrial.
McGurk, 45, from Govan in Glasgow, was shot in the head as he got out of his car in the driveway of his Sydney home in 2009.
His son ran into the house, screaming: “Mummy, dad’s been hurt. There was a pop and there’s blood.”
The court heard McGurk was an enforcer for property tycoon Medich, but they then became rivals and fell out bitterly over a string of business deals and lawsuits.
The star prosecution witness, Medich’s ex-friend Fortunato “Lucky” Gattellari, said Medich complained that McGurk had made him a laughing stock and told him to have him killed, saying: “I want it done.”
But the defence said Gattellari’s “tongue was dripping with lies” – and revealed he stands accused of trying to extort £9million from Medich in return for changing his evidence.
Medich was freed after an eight-week trial at New South Wales Supreme Court.
Gattellari, 68, was jailed for arranging the murder but had his sentence cut for testifying against Medich.
Hitman Haissam Safetli, 45, and his getaway driver Christopher Estephan, 19, were also jailed. Gattellari’s driver Senad Kaminic, 49, got two-and-a-half years for acting as an accessory.