Mick Gatto arrested in Melbourne suburb of Brooklyn



| November 26, 2008


UNDERWORLD identity Mick Gatto has today been arrested over serious assault allegations.
Mr Gatto was arrested today at his business, Elite Cranes in the Melbourne suburb of Brooklyn.

The Herald Sun Online understands he is alleged to have assaulted a man at the crane business.
He is being taken to Altona North police station for questioning.

It is understood the victim of the alleged assault had gone to collect a debt he believed Mr Gatto owed him

ACQUITTED killer Mick Gatto has been ordered to stay away from a man who claims he assaulted him.

Melbourne man Anton Matijas has been granted an intervention order against Mr Gatto because he fears for his and his children's safety.

Mr Matijas said he would press charges, but Mr Gatto has denied hitting him and said he would happily abide by the intervention order.

"I'm very happy with the intervention order because if I never see him again as long as I live, I'll be very happy,'' Mr Gatto said.

Mr Matijas, 33, of Williamstown, was granted the order by Sunshine Magistrates' Court on Thursday after allegedly being assaulted on Tuesday at Mr Gatto's business Elite Cranes.

"At the end of the day, everyone knows Mick Gatto. I just fear for their (my children's) safety,'' he told the court as he appeared with a blackened right eye with a small cut under it.

"I just don't want to take that chance.''

Mr Matijas later told the Seven Network he planned to pursue charges against Mr Gatto.



"Half of Melbourne and half of Victoria Police are totally sick of Gatto. This is enough, someone's got to pull him up,'' he told Seven.

Mr Matijas' ex-wife Anna, however, told Seven he was not a victim.

Anna, who works as Mr Gatto's personal assistant, accused Mr Matijas of vandalising her car and home and of smashing the windows of her parents' car.

"He's not supposed to go anywhere near his wife and children and he continues to do so daily,'' Mr Gatto told Seven.

Magistrate John Hardy made the order only in relation to Mr Matijas and not his children.

Mr Gatto will have an opportunity to contest the order when the matter returns to court on December 11.

He was arrested on Wednesday but later released after being questioned by police.

Outside Melbourne restaurant Grossi Florentino today, Mr Gatto denied striking Mr Matijas.

"I didn't punch him. He walked into the lunchroom there and he tripped over a hump on the ground, hit his head on the side of the fridge and then I burst out laughing,'' he said.

"He can continue on with all this nonsense but I am not a thug, and I treat people the way they treat me.''

Mr Matijas claimed he went to Elite Cranes where Mr Gatto asked him into a back room where the alleged assault took place.

Mr Gatto has been well-known in Melbourne since the deadly underworld war that ran for about a decade from 1995.

He was charged with murder and spent more than a year in prison on remand until being acquitted over the 2004 shooting death of underworld hitman Andrew Veniamin on self defence grounds.

Mr Gatto also had been questioned by police over the 2002 murder of drug dealer Victor Peirce but was never charged.