Man: I did not will half estate to judge’s children

The alleged victim of a district court judge accused of deception has said he never consented to leaving half of his estate to her children

Heather Perrin, aged 60, is accused of attempting to deceive Thomas Davis into bequeathing a large portion of his estate, worth about €1m, to her two children while she operated a solicitor’s practice.

Mr Davis, aged in his 80s, spent the day in the witness box giving evidence of the alleged attempt to alter his will without his knowledge.

He described a meeting with Ms Perrin shortly before she was officially appointed a judge, in which he signed a will but was not given a chance to review it.

Ms Perrin, of Lambay Court, Malahide, has plea-ded not guilty to deceptively inducing Mr Davis to bequeath half of his estate to Sybil and Adam Perrin at her office on Fairview Strand on Jan 22, 2009.

Mr Davis told prosecuting counsel Dominic McGinn SC he had known Ms Perrin for many years, and that he had known her two children since they were young.

In Jan 2009, he gave instructions to Ms Perrin concerning a new will and went to her office on Jan 22 to sign the document.

The prosecution presented Mr Davis’s will, bequeathing €2,000 each to various churches and €2,000 each to Adam and Sybil Perrin if Mr Davis and his wife passed away.

It also ordered his house be sold and the proceeds divided between his two nieces, with the rest of his estate to be divided equally between his two nieces and the Perrin children.

Mr Davis identified his signature on the document, as well as those of two witnesses: The accused’s husband, Albert Perrin, and her secretary, Pauline Ball.

The witness said it was a short meeting because Ms Perrin had other urgent work to do. He said he did not get to read the document, nor was it read over to him. He denied that Mr Perrin or Ms Ball were in the room at the time.

He said he never gave instructions to leave half of his residual estate to Ms Perrin’s children and that he would not have knowingly signed a document which did so.

He said he was not given a copy of the document until several weeks later, when one was posted to him. He said his copy corresponded with his original wishes to divide his residual estate between his two nieces only.

Mr Davis said later that year he began receiving letters from the firm that took over Ms Perrin’s practice. He said she responded to these letters, demanding the firm stop contacting them and return the wills and other legal documents.

He said when he received a letter from the law firm querying his will and how much he had bequeathed the Perrin children, he went to their offices with a friend and his niece.

Mr Davis said he could not believe it when they showed him the will he signed in January. He made a new will that day which conformed to his wishes and made his nieces the executor of his estate instead of Ms Perrin. He continued to bequeath €2,000 each to her children.