Gattellari bought gun from cop: court

A corrupt police officer who was taking bribes from Ron Medich also sold former boxer Lucky Gattellari a gun for $2500, a court has heard.

A corrupt cop, an illegal gun, unrecorded loans and an alleged extortion attempt.

These were just some of the topics touched upon as Lucky Gattellari gave evidence against property developer Ron Medich over the murder of Sydney businessman Michael McGurk.

Gattellari has already been sentenced for being an accessory before the fact to Mr McGurk's murder

The former featherweight boxing champion is now the key crown witness against Medich and kicked off his first day of evidence at Medich's committal hearing on Monday.

Gattellari told Central Local Court that in the year after Mr McGurk's death in September 2009, he bought a gun from a NSW police officer for $2500.

He said he bought the gun at the request of hitman Haissam Safetli and then stored it at the back of a filing cabinet in his office.

"He (the policeman) was the sort of person who took bribes from Mr Medich to do deals with the Aboriginals," Gattellari said.

Medich has been charged with murdering Mr McGurk, who was shot outside his Cremorne home in Sydney's north on September 3, 2009.

The crown alleges Medich enlisted Gattellari's help to carry out the hit.

It was Haissam Safetli and Christopher Estephan, the crown says, who went to Mr McGurk's home and fired the fatal shot.

Gattellari received a substantial discount on his sentence for giving evidence against Medich.

He told the hearing he had loaned hundreds of thousands of dollars to various people out of Medich's company accounts.

This included a $340,000 loan to his brother Rocky and a $100,000 payment to his daughter for a mortgage.

"On whose permission did you have to fleece Mr Medich of $100,000?", Medich's barrister Winston Terracini SC asked.

"I didn't need permission," Gattellari said, adding that no records were kept of any of the loans as "90 per cent of everything I did for Mr Medich was illegal".

The court has previously heard allegations that in the days after his arrest in October 2010, Gattellari sent a message to Medich warning that if he didn't give him $1 million he would implicate him in Mr McGurk's murder.

But Gattellari said: "There was no extortion. That is garbage".

After his arrest, he said he had gone through his solicitor to request help from Medich to pay for his bail and legal fees.

He admitted to lying to the NSW Crime Commission on numerous occasions in order to protect himself, his driver Senad Kaminic and Medich.

Gattellari said he had met Mr McGurk a number of times - one of which was at the debt collector and businessman's office.

The boxer said he told Mr McGurk: "If you stay out of my business I will stay out of yours".

The hearing continues.


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Source: AAP


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