Mick Gatto loses defamation lawsuit against ABC

Underworld figure Mick Gatto has lost his legal fight against the national broadcaster, over an article that he said portrayed him as a “murderer”.

Mick Gatto has lost his defamation battle against the ABC. Picture: Keryn Stevens.

Underworld figure Mick Gatto has lost his defamation lawsuit against the ABC.

Gatto, 65, launched Supreme Court action against the national broadcaster following an article it published about him in February 2019.

He said he wanted “maximum” compensation and for the ABC to apologise as the story was inaccurate and led to “public ridicule and contempt” by claiming he was a “murderer” and “a hit man”.

But Justice Andrew Keogh on Friday dismissed the case.

“It is understandable that Mr Gatto is unhappy about the publication of the article, which reports on very serious allegations that were made against him,” Justice Keogh said.

However, Justice Keogh said the ABC “did not impute that the allegations were true”.

“To the contrary, (the ABC) carefully recorded that they were no more than allegations that had been made in the course of the proceedings,” Justice Keogh ruled.

The ABC report, titled “Gangland figure Mick Gatto threatened to kill police Informer 3838, court told” was written by journalists Nino Bucci and Sarah Farnsworth and centred on allegations made by a senior police officer in a 2016 affidavit.

The ABC argued “absolute privilege” in that the media have a right to report on evidence tendered in court.

Giving evidence in the trial, Gatto claimed he knew he was a person of “notoriety”, but was “in a state of shock” when he read the ABC article alleging he was implicated in the murders of Victor Peirce and Frank Benvenuto; and had threatened to kill “Lawyer X” Nicola Gobbo.

“It’s terrible what they said about me,” Gatto told the court.

Gatto said the ABC “crossed the line” when calling him “a murderer, a hit man and one of the most violent men in Australia”.

“There’s nothing further from the truth,” he said.

He detailed how a jury acquitted him of the 2004 murder of Melbourne hit man Andrew “Benji” Veniamin.

“I ended up ultimately killing him in self-defence,” Gatto said.

The trial also heard from Gatto’s wife Cheryle, who described him as “a good man”, and author Tom Noble, the ghostwriter of Gatto’s autobiography, I, Mick Gatto, who detailed how Gatto “sells papers” with their book selling in “huge numbers”.

United Firefighters Union national secretary Peter Marshall — who is known to be good friends with Gatto — also gave character reference evidence.

Mr Marshall said Gatto had a good reputation in the community for his charity work, detailing how the pair met during Gatto’s fundraising efforts for the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009.

Gatto told the court he sued the ABC “to stop them from telling lies”.