NCA bombing suspect Domenic Perre stands trial for fatal bombing for first time
The man long suspected of masterminding the fatal explosion at the NCA building in Adelaide’s CBD is finally standing trial over the infamous crime – and his jailhouse letters are under the spotlight.
SA News
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The cousin of the NCA bombing suspect answered “yep, that was Domenic” when questioned by a fellow drug dealer, about the infamous 1994 crime a court has heard.
The Supreme Court has also heard claims Domenic Perre told a fellow prisoner he was nearby when the bomb killed Detective Sergeant Geoffrey Bowen “because he wanted to watch”.
Perre’s first-ever trial for murder and attempted murder began on Monday – 9728 days after the long-unsolved Waymouth St bombing.
Prosecutors Sandi McDonald SC and Lisa Dunlop outlined evidence they said would prove Perre’s guilt, including a letter he wrote after his arrest and “numerous” recorded phone calls.
Ms McDonald said the testimony of several former criminals and prison informants would reveal how Perre had talked about the bombing in the three decades since.
She said Perre’s cousin had told a fellow drug dealer that the duo were being “hassled by a copper” after a drug crop at Hidden Valley, in the NT, had been discovered.
“On one occasion, (the cousin) asked ‘how are we going to fix this c---?’ and Perre answered ‘with that there’, pointing to a light brown, rectangular box,” she said.
“(The cousin) told (the dealer) Perre was ‘going to blow up a cop, the c--- who won’t leave us alone and is hassling us’.”
She said that, a week after the bombing, the dealer confronted Perre’s cousin about both it and the box he had seen.
“He says ‘I asked (the cousin) straight up, was that Domenic who did that, was that the package on the table?’,” she said.
“He says ‘(the cousin) said, straight up, yep that was Domenic’ and he (the dealer) told them they were ‘crazy bastards’ and just left.”
Perre, 61, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Detective Sergeant Bowen and attempting to murder lawyer Peter Wallis with a parcel bomb on March 2, 1994.
He 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 Perre’s arrest in March 2018, his counsel have insisted the only new evidence comes from “a conga line” of “self-interested” prison informants.
Perre is currently serving a seven-year prison term for his part in a drug racket stretching across the Barossa, northern suburbs and Western Australia.
He is also accused of having spat upon an SA Police officer who was investigating Perre’s claim he had been assaulted in prison.
Perre’s first-ever trial over the bombing began, on Monday, with legal argument over the admissibility of evidence.
On Monday, Ms McDonald said the conversation between the cousin and the drug dealer supported the evidence of another witness – a prison informant.
She said that man spent time in custody with both Perre and his cousin in 1996 and 1997.
Perre, she said, gave that man “esoteric details” about the bombing after first warning him about “Omerta”, saying it meant “silence and loyalty”.
“At one time, (the cousin) started to question Domenic, who made a sign with his hands in front of his chest to reference a bomb exploding,” she said.
“(The cousin) grabbed Perre by the shirt saying ‘what the f---?’ … he ‘got really pissed’ at Perre.”
Ms Dunlop, meanwhile, said a letter written in prison by Perre on April 14, 1994, showed “consciousness of his guilt”.
It was addressed to Stan Tettis, owner of a gun shop called Central Firearms – a location, she said, that was vital to the case and frequented by Perre and many of the witnesses involved.
The letter, she said, was primarily concerned with another Central Firearms customer named Allan Chamberlain.
Perre has already stood trial over that letter – he was acquitted of charges he sent it to potential witnesses to attempt to pervert the course of justice.
Ms Dunlop said there would be no allegation that Perre sent the letter, merely that he wrote it – and in doing so, revealed his state of mind at the time.
“It says ‘Chamberlain was going to put me away … he knows about me, given my problems with the NCA … if he gets rid of me, he could keep my guns’,” she said.
“The court will hear evidence that Perre had given a significant cache of firearms to Chamberlain for safekeeping purposes (and) he placed them in his stable under the floorboards.”
She said the letter combined with other evidence to show Perre’s response to his 1994 arrest.
“There will be a number of recordings of calls that were intercepted between Perre and various members of his family, particularly his wife and eldest son,” she said.
“Their repeated theme will be Perre asking or directing them, sometimes in Italian and sometimes in English, often in a coded way, to take action and remove, clean or destroy certain items in his home or shed.
“This is evidence which is capable of establishing a consciousness of guilt.”
Gilbert Aitken, for Perre, said prosecutors were choosing to read his client’s letter incorrectly.
“The letter commences with ‘I’m absolutely innocent, desperate and suffering in jail’,” he said.
“He wrote ‘my family is suffering, my wife and children are grief-stricken’ … he’s explicit in proclaiming his innocence and his belief that Chamberlain was responsible.
“He says he has been wrongly accused and is fearful of being wrongly convicted of something he’s not responsible for – and he has maintained that position over more than two decades.”
He said using the letter would “diminish” his client’s earlier acquittal and should not, as a matter of law, be permitted in the trial.
He further argued it was unimportant, given there was no proof it has ever been mailed.
“A letter that was not sent, the mere writing of something, represents a passing thought – a moment in time,” he said.
“Crucially and critically, there’s no evidence it’s something that was ever acted upon.”
Mr Aitken said that, even if the letter were admissible, it was of little evidentiary use.
“Between March 2 and 11, 1994, the police went at 150 per cent in terms of looking for evidence,” he said.
“Perre’s house and shed was searched from top to bottom, left to right, north to south, and it was all sent off to an enormous amount of experts.
“None of the things located linked Perre to the bombing – nothing – and these purported requests of others all happened after his premises were searched.”
He said the evidence regarding Perre’s cousin was “entirely fabricated” and should be excluded.
The trial, before Justice Kevin Nicholson and in the absence of a jury, is expected to run for six months.
Originally published as NCA bombing suspect Domenic Perre stands trial for fatal bombing for first time
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