Murder role misguided loyalty: Gattellari

Boxer Lucky Gattellari has denied he became involved in the 2009 murder of Sydney businessman Michael McGurk for the money, saying instead that it was a case of "misguided loyalty".

Gattellari, 63, has pleaded guilty to being an accessory before the fact of the murder of Mr McGurk, who was killed by a single gunshot to the head outside his Cremorne home on Sydney's lower north shore in September 2009.

It is alleged that his business associate and property tycoon Ron Medich told Gattellari that he wanted him to find someone to kill Mr McGurk.

Gattellari then approached his friend and driver Senad Kaminic, who has pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact of murder, about the proposed killing.

Two other men, Christopher Estephan and Hassam Safetli, were also allegedly recruited to help carry out the murder.

In a sentence hearing of Gattellari and Kaminic before the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday, the boxer said they had spent "quite a bit of time" trying to talk Medich out of the murder but that unfortunately he was "obsessed".

"He would say `why isn't this f***ing guy gone?'. I want him dead," Gattellari told the court.

Gattellari said Medich, who was embroiled in legal battles with Mr McGurk at the time, believed the businessman had made him a "laughing stock in the eastern suburbs".

"He felt this man was destroying his marriage and this man was ruining his life," Gattellari said.

The court heard that at the time, Gattellari was earning around $ 140,000 a year from "numerous" business ventures which Medich had invested in, including land and property development and construction.

If these ventures took off, Gattellari estimated that he stood to gain anywhere between $ 500,000 to $ 3 million.

But the 63-year-old denied money had played any role in his decision to help Medich.

"My thoughts were never based on money. It was misguided loyalty to a person who I regarded as a friend," he said.

He said he felt indebted to Medich, who had helped him over the years and that he felt his involvement in the murder was "minuscule", as he was just passing on one person's request to another.

"It was an absurd thing to do. It was the wrong thing to do," he said.

Later he added: "Money would not buy that kind of help from me under any circumstances".

Medich, Estephan and Safetli been charged over the murder and are set to face a committal hearing in August to decide whether they should stand trial.

The hearing for Gattellari and Kaminic continues before Justice Megan Latham.

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