Suspect fights to silence talk of links to mafia hit

Lawyers for businessman Tony Madaferri have ridiculed the suggestion that he arranged the murder of lawyer Joe Acquaro.

Tony Madafferi.

Lawyers for Calabrian-born businessman Tony Madafferi have ridiculed the suggestion that he arranged the murder of lawyer Joe Acquaro within months of being prominently identified as someone who might want him dead.

Mr Madafferi, a police suspect in the fatal shooting of Mr Acquaro, yesterday applied for broad court orders preventing any further media reports linking him to the murder.

Georgina Schoff QC, acting for Mr Madafferi, described as a stark and incredible coincidence police suspicions held last year that her client was responsible for a $200,000 bounty on the head of Mr Acquaro and this week’s execution-style murder of the criminal solicitor. “A man has now been murdered — not any man, the man that the police said they suspected us of murdering right back in September before he was even dead,’’ Ms Schoff told the Victorian ­Supreme Court. “It is incredibly prejudicial to Mr Madafferi. No wonder all the newspapers are pointing the finger at him.

“Who would be so stupid as to murder someone having already told the court that they were a suspect in the murder? It beggars belief.’’

Mr Madafferi, a 65-year-old supermarket owner long suspected by law enforcement agencies of being a senior figure within the Calabrian mafia, also known as L’Onorata Societa, had a bitter falling out with Mr Acquaro, a solicitor who for many years handled the Mr Madafferi family’s legal affairs.

It is understood that Mr Madafferi suspected Mr Acquaro of providing information to a journalist investigating his business affairs and suspected links to the mob. Mr Acquaro was warned by police last year that a $200,000 contract had been placed on his head but continued to meet journalists.

Mr Acquaro was shot dead in the early hours of Tuesday shortly after he left the Lygon Street gelati bar and cafe he part-owned. His body was found by a garbage collector in a laneway near his parked Mercedes sedan.

Suppression orders issued by Supreme Court judge John Dixon prior to Mr Acquaro’s death prevent the publication of information contained in sworn court documents which could shed light on the homicide investigation.

Justice Dixon will this morning decide whether to uphold an application by media companies to revoke those suppression orders or to grant Mr Madafferi’s request for an additional blanket ban on any reports linking him to the Acquaro murder.

Mr Madafferi denies any involvement with the Calabrian mafia and has never been charged or convicted of a crime. His brother Frank Madafferi, a career criminal regularly represented by Mr Acquaro, is serving a lengthy jail sentence for his involvement in a plot to import from Italy 4.4 tonnes of ecstasy pills in tomato tins. After being sentenced to 10 years’ jail, Frank Madafferi refused to pay Mr Acquaro’s legal bill. The pair reportedly had a fist fight in Mr Acquaro’s gelati bar.

Tony Madafferi is suing The Age newspaper over of a series of articles describing him as the head of the mafia in Australia. That case is due to be tried before a jury later this year. Ms Schoff said her client could not receive a fair hearing if the media continued to report “salacious rumour and gossip’’.

Justice Dixon questioned why he should prohibit the further publication of material that had already been widely reported.

“What do you want to achieve?’’ the judge asked.

“You want me to shut down the whole debate that connects this death with Mr Madafferi?”

“Yes,’’ Ms Schoff replied. “We want the court to stop what is just salacious rumour and gossip at this stage; any suggestion that Mr Madafferi is or may be responsible for the death of Mr Acquaro.’’

The additional material that media companies want to report is contained in documents prepared by Mr Madafferi’s own legal team as part of a failed attempt to force a journalist with The Age newspaper, Nick McKenzie, to reveal his sources.

Counsel for Fairfax and the ABC, Matt Collins QC, said the latest application by Mr Madafferi was an attempt to “put the genie back in the bottle’’.

He said all the matters that Mr Madafferi wanted to suppress could be found in yesterday’s reports carried by The Australian and Herald Sun newspapers.