DRUG DEALER TELLS ALL, GOES 'SCOT-FREE'

A protected witness admitted yesterday he had got away "scot-free" from
serious drug charges after agreeing to give evidence against Michael
Kanaan, who is accused of a double murder outside the Five Dock Hotel.

The witness, who has been given the pseudonym Alan Rossini, has told the
Supreme Court that in June, 1999, he was arrested and charged with cocaine
dealing.

He had been called to the NSW Crime Commission the next month and decided
to tell all he knew about the Five Dock shooting the previous year. He
agreed with Mr Winston Terracini, SC, for Kanaan, that by co-operating with
the authorities, "I was hoping I would get some help, yes".

Mr Rossini was giving evidence against Kanaan, 25, who has pleaded not
guilty to the murder of Adam Wright and Michael Hurle and the attempted
murder of Ron Singleton outside the Five Dock Hotel on July 17, 1998.

Mr Rossini told the court on Thursday that he had been with Mr Kanaan in a
car that had pulled up outside the pub on the night of the shooting and
that he had seen Mr Kanaan holding a gun and firing it.

Yesterday, under cross-examination, he agreed with Mr Terracini that the
cocaine charges had been withdrawn.

Q. "Despite the fact that you knew you were guilty?"

A. "Yes, sir."

Q. "As a result you went scot-free?"

A. "Eventually, yes, but not because of the [Crime] Commission."

Mr Rossini was questioned about different versions of events he had given
to the commission and later the police, but he denied there were "large
inconsistencies" between some of his statements.

He agreed with Mr Terracini, though, that when first questioned by the
Crime Commission, he had said there were four people in the car.

Q. "Did you tell the Crime Commission anything about a fifth person?"

A. "No sir."

Mr Rossini has told the court he later remembered that there were five
people in the car on the night - himself, Michael Kanaan, Shadi Derbas,
Bassim Kazzi and a youth around 17 years of age.

Mr Terracini: "You got wrong the number of people in the car when you were
interviewed by the commission. Did you just forget?"

Mr Rossini: "No, at that time I remembered Michael, Shadi, Bassim and
myself, I forgot about that young guy that was there at that time."

Q. "What I am suggesting to you is there were only four people?"

A. "No, sir."

Q. "And the accused, Mr Kanaan, was not one of them?"

A. "He was, sir."

Mr Rossini also agreed he had made a mistake when he initially told
investigators he and Bassim Kazzi had dropped their phones at the scene of
the shooting. He later said it was him and Kanaan.

He told the court he did not know the youth who had been sitting in the
back and had never seen him again.

He said he was not worried about the youth going to the police. "He would
have been shot if he'd done that."

The youth was "one of Shadi's boys". "Shadi bringing this guy is telling us
that this guy is OK."

Mr Rossini rejected Mr Terracini's suggestion he might be protecting the youth.

The trial continues.