Hitman ‘informed on tycoon to put him in frame for murder’
A CONTRACT killer who shot a Scots businessman in Australia turned police informant to implicate a wealthy property developer in the murder, a court has heard.
Jurors were told Haissam Safetli wore a wire to secretly record conversations in an attempt to gather evidence against tycoon Ron Medich.
Michael McGurk, 45, originally from Glasgow’s Gorbals, died from a single bullet to the head outside his Sydney home in 2009.
Medich, 69, has been accused of arranging the killing of his business partner after their work relationship soured.
He has pleaded not guilty to the murder of the father of four and the subsequent intimidation of the Scot’s widow, Kimberley, on August 8, 2010.
New South Wales Supreme Court heard Safetli, 51, agreed to co-operate with police after realising that he was in the frame for the murder.
Jurors were told that he recorded conversations with former boxer Fortunato ‘Lucky’ Gattellari, who has already told the court that he arranged the murder of Mr McGurk on behalf of Medich.
Throughout the discussions, Safetli asked for assurances from Gattellari, 67, that he and his family would be looked after if he was arrested and jailed for the killing.
In one recording he said: ‘Yesterday I went and saw my solicitors and barristers, they were at
‘Look after my family’
the Crime Commission all Wednesday night. I’ll be arrested by Monday.
‘My solicitor said to me “they’re 100 per cent it’s you”.’
Safetli added the only way he could treat the contract killing ‘like a business’ was if ‘that mother ****** , right on the top, he has to look me in the face, say he’ll look after my family’.
Asked by the prosecution who Safetli was talking about, Gattellari responded: ‘He was talking about Ron Medich.’
At a later point in the recorded conversation, Gattellari offered Safetli his ‘personal life guarantee’, swearing ‘on the lives of my kids’ that the hitman’s family would not suffer, provided he took sole responsibility for the murder.
However, Safetli replied: ‘You’re trying to tell me I can’t get any guarantee from him. Come on man, you’re protecting the bank, you can’t say that to me now.’
Asked again by the prosecution who Safetli was referring to, Gattellari said: ‘Ron Medich. He wanted Ron Medich to give him a personal guarantee.
‘Safetli had no contact with Mr Medich. I had told him where the money was coming from, who the money man was and who the murder was for.’
Prosecutors have claimed that Medich wanted to have Mr McGurk permanently removed from his life because the two were embroiled in a number of messy legal suits, with each accusing the other of owing millions of dollars.
Gattellari has already been jailed over his involvement and received a discounted sentence after agreeing to give evidence against Medich.
Safetli, who is thought to have fired the fatal shot, is serving a seven-year sentence for his role in the murder. His accomplice Christopher Estephan, 27, who was present when Mr McGurk was shot, was jailed for four and a half years.
Mr McGurk, a property developer who emigrated to Australia in 2003, lived in Sydney with his wife and their four children.
Medich is standing trial over the murder for a second time after a jury failed to reach a verdict in the case last year.
The trial continues.