(Amended)
Former Police Inspector David Gatt, who was allegedly involved in the planning of the Balzan HSBC Bank branch hold-up in 2007, went to the same branch after the crime to cash a cheque.
The information was given by PC Mario Portelli, who told the court what he had learnt from Gatt during a friendship of several years.
The evidence was given during compilation proceedings against Gatt, who is accused of complicity in four major hold-ups.
Earlier PC Portelli, explained that a priest had urged him to tell the police what he knew about David Gatt.
He also confirmed that the former police inspector had performed an initiation rite on him and warned him of serious consequences should he ever reveal anything about him to anyone. In many cases he spoke in Italian.
PC Portelli said he was a cousin of David Gatt .
For him, David Gatt was different from others. He spoke in a superior manner and in a mafia style. He felt possessed by him after the initiation rite on December 8, 2004.
He was told by Fabio Psaila, who was very close to David, that they were planning to attack Fenech Adami and he, PC Portelli said, therefore decided to speak out.
Gatt had introduced him to Fabio Psaila early last year and they had dinner in Marsascala. After that, he regularly met him when he met Gatt. Recently, towards end of this year he also met him alone at MacDonalds (Airport). He used to be there with his son and Fabio used to go near him with his children.
Asked if he had told anyone else about this before he spoke to Deputy Police Commissioner Cachia, PC Portelli said, this had been a very difficult situation for him so he spoke to a priest he trusted and he encouraged him to report all he knew to the authorities. Asked if he spoke to priest under the secrecy of confession, he answered he spoke to him privately at his (the priest’s) home and asked for advice.
He did not go to the priest to confess since he had nothing to confess about this matter.
Asked how he was introduced to Psaila, PC Portelli said David Gatt told him he wanted him to meet 'his general'.
MAFIA NAMES
He used to refer to Psaila as Leoluca Bagarella and he used to describe himself as Toto Riina.
He also gave him a DVD on Toto Riina to watch.
PC Portelli said Gatt had also referred to another person - which he did not want to mention at this stage - as Salvatore Anzerillo, another George Briffa of Valletta, was Mikele Greco ditto il-Papa because he knew many people.
PC Portelli said he used to communicate with him through SMSs and through another mobile phone which was not registered.
The messages used to be mostly in Italian, sometimes in Maltese. This phone was used exclusively for Gatt and Psaila. They used a code to communicate with. For example, come for me near mother’s home was 'ejja wolf', come to me near flat was 'ejja fuq'.
Asked what had Gatt told him about the Attard hold-up, PC Portelli said he was at his home and Gatt sent him an SMS and asked to meet him. He was sick at home and told him he could not go but he asked David Gatt to go to him instead.
They met in a car. He told him he had a problem and asked for help because Topo (Darren Debono) had been hit in the leg and it would be a long time before he was out again and Fabio Psaila was also injured, in an arm.
He spoke in a vulgar manner about jeweller Michael Mizzi (against whom the hold-up was made).
PC Portelli said he was in the meantime telling everything to his superiors.
On the following day, Gatt told him that Fabio Psaila had been arrested.
PC Portelli said he informed the Deputy Commissioner, who told him that that was actually not the case.
Gatt later admitted his mistake and told him that Psaila was in pain and needed to rest. He asked him for a doctor or a nurse.
PC Portelli said his superiors instructed him to continue gaining time.
The next day David Gatt was arrested.
The constable also explained that David Gatt had told him that he had a (phone) just for contact with Fabio Psaila.
Later he told him that he had thrown away the phone because after he believed Fabio had been arrested.
Asked if he knew the man nicknamed as Topo (Darren Debono), he said he never met Darren Debono.
PC Portelli said he met David Gatt some weeks after the attempted HSBC hold up attempt (in July). David Gatt was very depressed, as if he had lost someone dear.
He told him he was the unluckiest man in the world as he had just lost €6 million (in the hold-up).
The theft, he had said, would have been on Euro News.
Had it not been for the mobile squad, he would have succeeded, he had said.
Gatt had told him how he had planned the hold-up for months, using insider information.
His problem now was about Dr John Zammit Montebello. He had phoned the doctor from the office of (Labour MP) Chris Cardona asking for help for Darren Debono, who had been shot.
David Gatt told Dr Zammit Montebello 'you are a doctor, I am a lawyer, I need your help I have a man who has a pellet in his jaw.' The doctor saw him and sent him for an X-Ray.
Gatt later claimed that it was the radiography people who had reported him.
On another occasion, David Gatt was very worried that the doctor would mention him in court.
After the case they met again, he looked satisfied and told him that he had met Zammit Montebello at Old Smugglers and warned him not to mention him. Gatt was satisfied he was not mentioned.
PC Portelli said that Gatt had also spoken to him about the attempted hold-up on an armoured van carrying HSBC security van in Sta Venera in January and the hold-up on the Balzan HSBC Bank in 2007.
On the former, he had complained about the quality of his men, saying that the mechanical shovel should have hit the security van sideways, to tear it open.
On the Balzan hold-up, Gatt told him the gang had heeded his advice, as they always did. It was he who told them to put some hair on site to mislead investigators.
The team later rewarded him with 10...
He told him that he actually went to the Balzan branch to cash a cheque there, and found (Inspectors) Calleja and Mercieca investigating.
Asked again to mention people who Fabio Psaila had told him would be targeted in vindictive attacks, he mentioned the Attorney General, two policemen who foiled the HSBC hold-up and PC 173 who had searched the vehicle of Fabio Psaila ’s friend at the Potato Shed.
During a number of times during PC Portelli's testimony, Magistrate Tonio Micallef Trigona warned the accused not to make any gestures or comments.
After the HSBC hold-up David Gatt asked him to go to his home. He asked him to check for him if the mobile squad had photos of a person. He told him (Portelli) he only wanted him to check if they had a photo of someone then he would see.
Gatt had pointed a revolver to his head and threatened him (Portelli). Such threats, he said, were quite regular.
In April 2009 when Eddie Fenech Adami's term as president ended, he told him the time had come to 'close his shutter' .
PC Portelli said he called Dr Fenech Adami on his (Dr Fenech Adami's) mobile and informed him that people may be planning to kill him.The call was made from a phone box in Zurrieq.
See separate stories on evidence by the Police Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner at
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20101216/local/david-gatt-had-intended-attacks-on-fenech-adami-and-others-court-told
and
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20101216/local/court-told-how-constable-spilled-the-beans-on-david-gatt