Pasquale Barbaro: Grieving mum reveals ‘I loved him, but I didn’t like him’

THE grieving mum of slain gangster Pasquale Barbaro has spoken for the first time of her tortured battle to save him from the grip of the Mafia and how she had been bracing for his brutal death for a decade.

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THE mother of slain Mafia gangster Pasquale Barbaro has spoken for the first time about her decades-long battle to turn him away from a life of crime, and how she “left no stone unturned” in a doomed attempt to save his life.

Not wanting to reveal her last name out of fear for her safety, Cheryl yesterday told The Daily Telegraph that ­although she loved Barbaro as her son, she “didn’t like him”.

“He was a lost soul and probably did most of the things reported, but I will ­always love him,” she said.

Murdered Sydney gangster Pasquale Barbaro. Picture: Instagram

“I didn’t like him or what he did, but I loved him a lot. He’s still my son.”

Cheryl, who was 20 when Barbaro was born, left his ­father, crime figure Giuseppe “Joe” Barbaro, when Pasquale was just nine months old.

She revealed how she had spent the past 10 years living in fear every day of receiving the dreaded phone call. That call came last week after Barbaro was gunned down on a suburban street in Earlwood.

Earlwood shooting: Crime kingpin Pasquale Barbaro slain ‘execution-style’

Giuseppe “Joe” Barbaro.

“I left no stone unturned and did everything possible within my human control to try to turn him into a better man, but I failed,” she said.

“For 10 years I have been crippled with fear waiting for that phone call, and it came last week.

“He was a lost soul and probably did most of the things reported, but I will ­always love him.”

Barbaro’s estranged wife Melinda Barbaro, 31, also spoke for the first time about their life together.

THE WIFE, THE MAN, THE INK: Barbaro’s estranged wife Melinda, the man in question and his extensive body art.

She insists that until her husband’s arrest in June 2012 for manufacturing 2kg of ice in Goulburn and Cobbitty, for which he spent a year behind bars, she saw only the side he chose to portray to her — a wealthy businessman who owned gold mines in the Philippines and was fiercely loving and loyal to his family.

Pasquale Barbaro: The tough guy who had to die

“He did everything to protect me and our children from what went on. I knew nothing about his criminal past,” the striking mother-of-two told The Daily Telegraph.

Some of the ink sported by the gangland figure.

A very young Barbaro.

Barbaro sported some serious ink.

“He had such a big heart and if he loved you he would do everything in his power to protect you. He couldn’t walk past a homeless person in the street without giving them a $50 note from his pocket.

“He did charity work and helped with meals on wheels. I’m not naive, maybe he did pull the wool over my eyes, but he was not all bad.”

Pasquale Timothy Barbaro, 35, was gunned down in Earlwood outside the home of one of his controversial mates, construction industry figure George Alex, last week.

There is no suggestion Mr Alex was involved in his death.

Pasquale Barbaro was murdered in Earlwood earlier this month.

Melinda Barbaro, the estranged wife of murdered Sydney underworld figure Pasquale Barbaro.

His shooting is just one of those being investigated by Strike Force Osprey, set up as Sydney’s gangland murder count climbed to eight.

Like his father Joe, Pasquale, also known as Tim, built his business around drug-dealing. And he, too, was a philanderer, earning a reputation as a playboy as well as a thug. His wife Melinda says she knew of “heaps of other women” after they separated three years ago.

Building industry figure George Alex. Barbaro was gunned down outside his home.

“They were fun, those girls, most were just skanks to ease his loneliness,” she said.

Cheryl fled her Calabrian Mafia husband in 1981 when Pasquale was just a baby, but although she won custody of her son, she was obliged to take him to visit his father in jail.

She fought to keep Pasquale on the straight and narrow as he battled with ADHD and was expelled from a string of schools for being disruptive.

At 16 he was in court for burglary, and in 2001, aged 21, he was jailed for nine years with a non-parole period of six years after pleading guilty to drug dealing, including arranging for his father to send him methamphetamine from Melbourne to Sydney via a drug courier on a plane.

Sources say he moved away from his Mafia background to set up a drug network with independent groups in western Sydney among Middle Eastern crime gangs and bikies.

“He never did the crime, he took the hit for it in honour of the family,” an insider said.

On his release from jail, Barbaro developed a flashy taste in fast cars and expensive Rolex watches, as well as a ­series of garish gangster tattoos, which eventually covered almost his entire body.

Farhad Qaumi and Pasquale Barbaro captured on CCTV at The Star.

By then he was already married to raven-haired Melinda, who he first set eyes on when she was 16, and the couple went on to have two children.

After several years he was arrested again in June 2012 for manufacturing ice between 2010 and 2011.

Melinda stood by him, but says now that after he was ­released on bail in May 2013 he began to spin out of control. His best friends included Dallas Fitzgerald, son of former Hells Angels boss Felix Lyle and Hells Angels chief Suat Sarmisakliouglu.

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“He was always in suits and people who came to the house were too and they all had business cards,” his wife said.

“I never saw anything untoward in the house; never drugs, never a gun, nothing.

Police sweep the scene, following the underworld figure’s murder.

“We were happy for years until he went to prison; we started having our ups and downs and separated a few months after his release.

“He had a temper and would flare up but that’s just him being Italian. A row was forgotten in seconds.

“Yes there were heaps of other women but they were just fun, it was out of ­loneliness.

“We tried to work it out ­between us several times.”

Things turned ugly earlier this year when Barbaro ­assaulted Melinda in an elevator, grabbing her by the throat and spitting in her face.

Court documents state the pair were arguing when he “moved towards her head” and “used the hold he had on her” to push her inside.

Police on the scene where Sydney crime kingpin Pasquale Barbaro was shot dead. Picture: Dylan Robinson

She fell into the elevator and he used his right foot to push her against the wall ­“spitting at her and calling her a whore”.

A witness called the police and he was arrested.

Barbaro was charged with assault and pleaded guilty at Downing Centre Local Court. He was sentenced to 150 hours community service.

Police took out a domestic restraining order against him in July stipulating he must not go within 100m of her premises, and around that time he was diagnosed as bipolar.

His mother Cheryl confirmed Barbaro suffered from a mental illness.

“His mental illness and the persona he played (Mafia tough guy) always won,” she said yesterday.

“The real him rarely made a showing. We saw the storm coming but did not realise that he was the storm.”

Melinda said: “Around 2014 he had changed, he lost his mind, being in prison messed with his head.

“I loved Pasquale for his beautiful heart but he was a different person.

“The one thing I will never accept is that he was an ­informant. He was many things but never, ever that.”