Thomas Ivanovic still under threat from gangland rivals
THOMAS “Little Tommy’’ Ivanovic didn’t flinch as another inmate murdered gangland boss Carl Williams. Now he’s set for release, almost a year after surviving a stabbing attack inside prison.
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IT is almost eight years to the day since Thomas “Little Tommy’’ Ivanovic stood inside a prison dayroom as his former friend Carl Williams was bashed to death.
His back was turned. He didn’t flinch as another inmate, Matthew Charles Johnson, rained down blows on the head of Williams as security cameras rolled in the high-security Acacia Unit.
Within minutes, Ivanovic would be on the phone to an associate who had much to gain from Williams demise.
Ivanovic was in jail for the January 8, 2002 shooting of motorcyclist Ivan Conabere in a road rage incident outside his family home in Brunswick West.
He has served a year more than his minimum 15-year jail sentence, and has been the target of numerous probes while in prison.
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Ivanovic, also known as “The Gun’’, is well connected, and until recently, was generally well liked within underworld circles.
The diminutive criminal, who is godfather to Carl Williams’ daughter, Dhakota, has been a key person of interest over his knowledge of police corruption and underworld hits, including Williams fatal prison bashing on April 19, 2010.
And the 43-year-old will be released almost a year after surviving a stabbing attack at Barwon Prison. He remains under threat from rivals.
Since being attacked, he has spent time in a segregation unit and been moved to Loddon Prison, but returned to Barwon Prison to await his release.
Since the murder of Williams, authorities have attempted to analyse a money trail believed to have been put into a betting account as payment for the hit.
Sources have since told the Herald Sun that there has been animosity over an outstanding amount owed to Ivanovic and Johnson.
JAIL ATTACK: THOMAS IVANOVIC PRISON STABBING CAUGHT ON CCTV
Ivanovic has also survived the fractures within feared jail gang, Prisoners of War.
But in the minds of many he will always be linked, like Williams, to police officer Paul Dale.
Mr Dale, while a Brunswick detective, cultivated a relationship with “Little Tommy’’ before he was imprisoned over the shooting of Mr Conabere and continued to visit him while in prison.
Oddly, Mr Dale made a statement which could have been used in his defence that Ivanovic’s life was in danger at the time he shot Mr Conabere.
Mr Dale stated he had been approached by a man in a Brunswick pub who told him Ivanovic was a “dead man walking’’ just prior to the shooting.
Their relationship has been the subject of lengthy investigations by the Petra taskforce, which spent four years probing the murders of police informers Terence and Christine Hodson.
In a major bungle, Corrections Victoria and police allowed Williams to be in the unit with Ivanovic and Johnson, despite the fact he was making statements alleging Dale had paid him to organise the murder of Hodson.
Petra taskforce investigators built into their case Mr Dale’s relationship with Williams, which was allegedly facilitated by Ivanovic after numerous visits the police officer made to him in prison.
It was a breathtaking collapse of judgment that Ivanovic, who had known both Mr Dale and Williams for many years, was allowed to be in the same unit as Williams and prison enforcer Johnson.
After Williams’ death police would apply pressure to Ivanovic — conducting raids over unsolved crimes he is suspected to have committed.
Ivanovic is understood to no longer be close to the man he called moments after the death of Williams: Mafia-connected man and former gangland henchman, Rocco Arico.
Arico was a fellow Brunswick-bred criminal, once aligned to Williams and suspected of killing for him.
In 2010, Williams was believed to have been set to make a statement implicating Arico in a murder.
But instead he was slain by Johnson with the stem of a bicycle seat.
Last year after Ivanovic became eligible for parole his family defended him, suggesting there was bias in his trial.
It was even asserted Ivanovic was the victim of the road rage attack that landed him with a murder charge.
“We just hope that he’ll have a chance to establish himself in society,’’ she said.
“All this old stuff is just old baggage. Most people have forgotten about it.’’
She said she did not expect her brother to ever talk about what he knows about the underworld.