A PROPERTY developer accused of masterminding the shooting of a Scottish businessman in Australia considered having him seduced by a beautiful woman and poisoned instead, a court has heard.
Millionaire Ron Medich on trial over the murder of his former business partner Michael McGurk, 45, who was gunned down outside his home on September 3, 2009, in Sydney.
Giving evidence, a former driver and debt collector of Lucky Gattellari, one of Medich's close associates, said that he heard the pair discuss plans to kill Mr McGurk.
Senad Kaminic, who has already been been convicted of Mr McGurk's murder, received a shorter sentence and indemnity against other charges if he agreed to testify against Mr Medich.
Kaminic, a former Bosnian soldier, told the jury Mr Medich had wanted a hit man to "go all the way" and kill Mr McGurk.
The pair had been battling over millions of dollars in court after several business deals fell through.
"If I had a gun, I would have killed him," Kaminic recalled Mr Medich saying in 2009.
Conspirators originally discussed a plot in which a woman would become "friendly" with Mr McGurk and inject him with a lethal overdose of drugs. Shooting became the preferred option.
Kaminic also said that Mr Medich was "under pressure, angry" when discussing Mr McGurk's widow, who he is accused of intimidating over money after her husband's murder.
Kaminic said that Mr Medich would refer to Mrs McGurk as a "bitch" who was "harder than him", meaning her husband.
He said one of the men who murdered her husband, Haissam Safetli, offered to intimidate her for $100,000.
Gattellari was saids to have checked with Mr Medich to see if that would be too expensive. Then the word came back that he should engage Safetli to scare off Mrs McGurk, Kaminic said.
The trial, in before the New South Wales supreme court, continues
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