Mick Gatto Fires Back At Natalie Barr As She Fearlessly Asked A Question Most People Wouldn’t Dare To Ask: ‘I Really Don’t Want To Talk About That’
Sunrise host Nat Barr stared down Melbourne underworld veteran Mick Gatto to grill him about the city’s gang war… but quickly sidestepped the issue.
The father-of-four, who has been linked to the infamous Carlton Crew, appeared on Seven’s breakfast show with his wife Cheryle to promote their autism charity event.
But Barr immediately shifted gears from the interview to discuss Melbourne’s current gang shootings that have rocked the city.
“We’ll be heading to the charity in a bit, but first Mick, seeing the gangland situation today, what are your thoughts?” she shot the self-confessed murderer.
Gatto was acquitted of the murder of hitman Andrew Veniamin in 2004, despite admitting that he fatally shot him twice in the head in self-defense during a struggle over a gun.
Wearing an apparent diamond-studded double-pendant necklace, gray-haired grandfather Gatto, 68, shied away from the line of questioning at Sunrise on Monday.
“Yes, that is a phase in my life that I have moved past and I really don’t want to talk about that,” he insisted.
“I’ve gotten away from that a bit and I’m focusing on other things now.”
The father-of-four, who has been linked to the infamous Carlton Crew, appeared on Seven’s breakfast show with his wife Cheryle to promote their autism charity event.
Gatto was also named as a criminal underworld standover man – which he denied – in a Royal Commission into the Building and Construction Industry in 2002.
The son of Italian immigrants insisted he was a negotiator and debt collector in the construction industry, although he has previously admitted his criminal reputation helped him.
Co-host Matt Shirvington continued to press Gatto, questioning the legendary Underbelly character if “he thought it would ever be resolved?”
But Gatto still refused to take the bait.
“The gangland?” he shot back. “Ah, look, that’s something you should probably ask the police, not me.
“I’m a retired grandfather down the street [Mornington] Peninsula, doing my own thing. I don’t deal with that kind of nonsense anymore.’
Mick Gatto was acquitted of shooting dead Carl Williams’ chief lieutenant Andrew Veniamin (pictured) in self-defense in 2004
The questions about Sunrise followed a series of shootings around Melbourne in recent months.
In September, former biker boss Gavin ‘Capable’ Preston, 50, was killed and a man he was dining with seriously injured when shots were fired outside Sweet Lulu’s cafe in Keilor Village.
The following month, Robert Issa, 27, was executed by four masked gunmen as he sat in his Mercedes outside the Craigieburn Central Shopping Center on October 7.
A second man, 28, was also hit in the attack and was rushed to hospital in a serious condition.
It followed a drive-by shooting of a nearby house in Craigieburn a few weeks earlier, in attacks believed to be linked to an illegal underworld tobacco supply war.
The TV conversation then switched to Gatto’s charity Equal Access for Autism, which was set up after his grandson Dominic, 16, was diagnosed on the autistic spectrum.
The foundation’s website says it raises money to support adolescents and young adults with autism who are dependent on others.
It also aims to provide safe access to recreational facilities and opportunities that are not currently available to them within their community.
The charity aims to “eliminate the sense of exclusion and isolation so that these people with special needs can enjoy maximum recreational activities,” it adds.
‘[And] provide services to these special people and offer them the security of integration.’