Alleged NCA bomber Domenic Perre pleaded guilty to gun and drug trafficking charges
He will stand trial in three months’ time over an infamous bombing, but now the rest of Domenic Perre’s criminal cases can be revealed with the end of a longstanding secrecy order.
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NCA bombing accused Domenic Perre pleaded guilty to firearms and drug trafficking charges over a crop discovered in the Riverland, it can be revealed.
On Friday, the District Court lifted longstanding suppressions surrounding the 63-year-old’s other cases, which were put in place to protect the integrity of his murder trial.
That trial, slated to begin in October, will proceed before Supreme Court Justice Kevin Nicholson and in the absence of a jury – making the publication bans unnecessary.
As a result, it can now be reported that Perre pleaded guilty, in September last year, to two counts of trafficking in a controlled drug and one count of possessing a silencer.
Those charges relate to the discovery, by police, of a cannabis crop on a property at Chaffey in the Riverland.
Officers found 13kg of dried cannabis, a room designated to grow the crop and, hidden inside the walls, a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun and a Bruno SLR rifle.
Other members of Perre’s family were charged over the discovery, including his brother Francesco – who claimed he had “forgot” the guns had been hidden.
He was jailed for three years, with the court saying he could neither plead poverty nor blame a drought, as he had the past two times he had been charged with similar offending.
On Friday, counsel for Perre argued against him receiving a lengthy sentence for the drug and firearms offending.
They argued imprisonment left him at high risk of contracting COVID-19 due to his underlying health issues, including diabetes, hypertension, deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolisms.
Prosecutors, however, said prison records showed Perre has a “pattern” of refusing to take prescribed medications and follow recommendations of health staff.
Judge Rauf Soulio will sentence Perre at a later date.
Earlier on Friday, Francesco’s son Antonio, Domenic Perre’s nephew, narrowly avoided prison for his role in the operation.
Judge Soulio said the 30-year-old father-of-two had played a limited role in the operation despite owning the property where the drugs were grown.
Audio recordings of Antonio Perre discussing setting up an underground bunker to grow more cannabis with his uncle Domenic Perre were incidents of “braggadocio”, Judge Soulio concluded.
He sentenced Antonio Perre to three years and 11 months in prison with a two-year non-parole period.
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The sentence was suspended on account of his positive prospects of rehabilitation and strong family support.
Domenic Perre has pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder over the infamous NCA bombing, on Waymouth Street on March 2, 1994.
He has denied killing Detective Sergeant Geoffrey Bowen and attempting to murder lawyer Peter Wallis with a parcel bomb.
Perre was originally charged days after the explosion but those allegations were dropped six months later, with prosecutors saying there was “no reasonable chance of conviction”.
Since his second arrest, in March 2018, his counsel has insisted the only new evidence comes from “a conga line” of “self-interested” prison informants.
