Former police inspector and lawyer David Gatt not only likened himself to ruthless Sicilian mafia boss Toto Riina but immersed himself in the rituals associated with the mafia Corleonese, according to testimony given in court yesterday.
Taking the witness stand against Dr Gatt, PC Mario Portelli said the former Rabat inspector had performed on him an initiation rite which mirrored, down to minute detail, the secret induction ritual of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, which had been revealed by the mafioso-turned-informer after his capture in 1996.
On December 8, 2004, PC Portelli said, Dr Gatt invited him to his mother’s house, telling him he would do something to him which would prove his loyalty. From the house, Dr Gatt picked up a candle and a holy picture and the two went to an empty apartment. There, Dr Gatt made a small cut in PC Portelli’s hand and daubed the holy picture with his blood and burnt it. As the picture burned, Dr Gatt spoke in Italian and ominously warned the police officer he would “pay with blood” if he betrayed him.
The description given by the witness is reminiscent of the initiation Toto Riina had performed on him in 1976.
“The experience left me with a heavy heart and almost possessed by him,” PC Portelli told the court.
As the constable testified, Dr Gatt, who was rather expressionless throughout most of the proceedings, sat in the dock, laughed to himself and gestured with his hands as if in disbelief before he was told off by Magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona. PC Portelli’s testimony went further with details about the immersion in Riina’s legend.
The constable said Dr Gatt would call alleged members of his gang by the names of the protagonists in Riina’s clan.
He called PC Portelli Filippo Marchese, a mafia hitman, and convicted criminal Romeo Bone, Dino Grego. A certain George Briffa from Valletta was dubbed Michele Greco, detto il-Papa. More significantly, PC Portelli, who had been introduced to all of these characters, said Dr Gatt reserved the name of Leoluca Bagarella – a right hand man of Riina’s – for Fabio Psaila who is on the run, wanted in connection with a recent hold up on a jeweller in Attard.
According to the witness, Dr Gatt called Mr Psaila his “general”. So obsessed was Dr Gatt with the cult of Riina he would give out a six set series of DVDs Il Capo dei Capi (the boss of bosses) which chronicled the life of the infamous mafia boss.
There was another man in this supposed gang, which Dr Gatt used to call Salvatore Anzerillo, a mafia boss from Palermo, but PC Portelli did not name him because there are pending investigations about him.
The officer said Dr Gatt even texted him in Italian and used coded messages to communicate even the simplest of things. For instance, when he wanted PC Portelli to pick him up from his house, he would message him saying: “Come here wolf”.