THE CONTRACT KILLER
Australian property developer Ron Medich paid $500,000 for the contract killing of his business rival, Michael Mcgurk. Father-of-four Michael was shot in the head while getting out of his car, outside his Sydney property in September 2009. The killing took place in front of his young son, who told his mother: “Mummy, mummy! Dad’s been hurt. There was a pop and there’s blood.” Millionaire tycoon Medich’s relationship with Michael had turned toxic and the pair were fighting over millions in court. In 2018, nine years after the killing, Medich was found guilty of instigating, directing and funding the murder of Michael, and the intimidation of his widow, Kimberley.
Medich, now 73, was sentenced to 39 years behind bars, and is unlikely to ever see the outside of a jail cell after losing his appeal in 2021.
“It had led the offender to form a deep-seated hatred of Mr Mcgurk and provide a motive for him to want to have Mr Mcgurk killed,” Justice Geoffrey Bellew said.
Even while behind bars, Medich enjoyed a multimilliondollar windfall from the sale of his NSW property, which sold for just shy of $500 million after he bought it for $3.5 million in 1996.