Bid to extradite killer should be dropped, court told

A bid to extradite an international drug smuggler convicted of killing a British policeman should be dropped until at least 2025, it was claimed today in court.

Lawyers for Perry Wharrie – jailed for 30 years after the seizure of €440m of cocaine off the West Cork coast – said proceedings should be postponed until he ends his sentence in Ireland.

The High Court heard the 49-year-old career criminal is wanted back in the UK to complete a life sentence for the murder of off-duty policeman Francis Mason.

But Michael O’Higgins SC claimed his client’s constitutional and human rights would be breached if an extradition order was granted and postponed, as the legal and parole system could change.

“The court simply has no way of knowing what rights will be in existence in 2025,” said Mr O’Higgins, for Wharrie.

Wharrie was part of a three-man armed gang who held up a Securicor van at Hemel Hempstead and killed the officer in 1988. The three were jailed for life the following year.

One of the accused, Charlie McGee, died in prison while the third man, James Hurley, became one of the UK’s most wanted criminals when he escaped in 1994.

He was arrested in a drugs raid in The Hague in 2007 and jailed for six years.

Wharrie, from Loughton, Essex, was released in April 2005 after 17 years in prison, but vanished a year later, breaching the terms of his parole.

A European Arrest Warrant was issued when he surfaced again in July 2007 during a botched drugs smuggling operation off the south west coast of Ireland when a boat’s high-powered outboard motors were filled with diesel instead of petrol.

Mr O’Higgins told Mr Justice Michael Peart that over the last quarter of a century the legal landscape in Ireland and the UK has completely altered, primarily in favour of the state at the expense of the accused person.

The court also heard if an extradition order was issued now and not deferred, it would lapse after three weeks.

Senior counsel for the state, Micheál O’Higgins, argued that the order should be granted and postponed.

“The fact that we do not have a crystal ball can not be grounds for not ordering extradition,” he said.

“This court is obliged to deal with the matter of extradition.”

Mr O’Higgins, for the state, assured the court safeguards were in place to protect Mr Wharrie’s rights – they included his ability to launch a Judicial Review against the initial revoking of his parole license in February 2006 without his knowledge and to apply to the Parole Board for an oral hearing. Appeals could also be made to the Irish and UK courts and the European Courts of Human Rights, he said.

The barristers also argued over differences in the two country’s judicial systems.

Mr O’Higgins, for Wharrie, said as his client was on licence at the time he disappeared he had not fled a sentence because, under the Irish constitution, there was nothing to flee.

But counsel for the state said differences in the sentencing regimes could not block an order to surrender, and highlighted that the UK system had never been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights.

He told the judge Wharrie was convicted for murder and, by breaching terms of his parole, he had not yet ended his sentence.

“It is upon this court to conclude the respondent fled the UK before he had completed his sentence,” added Mr O’Higgins, for the state.

Mr Justice Michael Peart reserved judgement until January 22.