'We didn't plot against Gianni'

Donatella Versace today denied allegations that her family conspired with the Mafia to murder her brother, fashion designer Gianni Versace.

The Versace fashion empire's chief executive gave evidence via satellite link-up to an Australian courtroom where private investigator Frank Monte is being sued by her family over claims in his book, The Spying Game.

The book was pulped days before its launch four months ago after the Versace family threatened court action.

Mr Monte, 55, claims that details in the book come from time spent working for Gianni Versace before he was shot dead by a gay serial killer on his doorstep in Miami in 1997. He says Mr Versace confided in him about family dealings with the Mafia, including financial transactions, while Mr Monte worked as his bodyguard between 1996 and 1997.

Miss Versace angrily denied Mr Monte ever worked for her brother.

Speaking from America she told the court: "I know that Gianni never met Mr Monte in his life. Do you want me to repeat this again? I have never met Mr Monte on any occasion in my whole life."

She denied the book's claims that Gianni Versace was killed as a result of a plot between her, their brother Santo and the Mafia, and that there was a rift in her family. "We had a great relationship," she said. "We were not only in partnership in work but the best of friends as well."

Santo Versace appeared in court in Canberra to deny the accusations. Miss Versace also countered allegations - in the wake of claims that their brother was HIV positive when he died - that she or Santo told him he had the Aids virus.

"This is absolutely no sense. Never. It is untrue and it is offensive," she said.

She rejected a suggestion by Mr Monte's barrister, Clive Evatt, that Miss Versace had met the author at a reception at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in December 1997.

"There is no 'if '," she said. "Mr Monte could not have been there. There was very tight security ... and it was by invitation."

Mr Monte's former lover, Justine Wallace, 31, told the court he had stumbled upon a fax written by Gianni Versace in a rubbish bag in New York and had used it as the basis of forgeries to substantiate claims that he worked for the designer.

Santo Versace denied his family had dealt in "dirty money" with the Mafia but admitted he had been prosecuted in 1994 over payments to tax officials. He said other Italian designers had been prosecuted for the same thing, and all were later cleared, adding: "We were all victims of extortion."

Through a translator, Mr Versace told Mr Evatt: "In this book there are all false allegations and I am being tried as a criminal. The criminal is your client." The case continues.