Perry Wharrie (48), from Loughton, Essex, is wanted by the British authorities for disappearing after being released on licence from a life sentence for murder in 2005. The case was listed for hearing today, but lawyers for Wharrie applied for an adjournment to reply to affidavits about the British prison system. Two members of Hertfordshire Constabulary flew to the Dublin to observe Wharrie oppose the warrant.
Security was tight at the Four Courts today as Wharrie arrived under armed escort.
Mr Justice Michael Peart said it was unsatisfactory and inconvenient to the court that a party could seek an adjournment on the day of a hearing. “Two officers from the UK who have travelled over for the case have not been told this application was going to be made,” he said. Wharrie was jailed for life in 1989 for the murder of an off-duty policeman in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, who tried to disarm a robber during a raid on a bank van. He was one of a three-man gang who had held up a security van outside a bank. Off-duty police officer Francis Mason attempted to tackle one of the armed men but was fatally shot in the back by a second. Wharrie was released in April 2005 and a year later disappeared, breaching the terms of his parole by leaving a specific address in Essex and leaving the jurisdiction.
Wharrie vanished until July 4th last year, when he and three other English men were arrested in west Cork over the €440 million euro drug smuggling operation.
Their boat, laden with drugs, capsized in rough seas after one of the gang had filled the two high-powered petrol outboard motors with diesel. After a 10-week trial Wharrie and two other men were given a total of 85 years in prison over the drugs operation. Wharrie and Martin Wanden (45) of no fixed address, were both jailed for 30 years while Joe Daly (41), of Bexley, Kent, was given a 25-year prison sentence. A fourth man, Gerard Hagan (24), of Liverpool, pleaded guilty and will be sentenced in November.
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