Key Points
- Dominic Perre has been found guilty for the NCA bombing.
- The bomb killed a police officer and seriously wounded a lawyer.
The man accused of bombing the National Crime Authority (NCA) office in Adelaide, killing a police officer and seriously wounding a lawyer, has been found guilty of both murder and attempted murder.
In the South Australian Supreme Court on Thursday, Justice Kevin Nicholson handed down his verdicts against Domenic Perre who is already behind bars over drug offences.
The 1994 bombing killed Detective Sergeant Geoffrey Bowen and seriously injured lawyer Peter Wallis.
Mr Bowen died from severe injuries, including the loss of his left arm, while Mr Wallis lost an eye and suffered severe burns.
Perre pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Bowen and the attempted murder of Mr Wallis in his months-long trial conducted by the judge alone.
He was first charged with murder soon after the bombing but the case against him was dropped six months later because of a lack of evidence.
The 64-year-old was arrested again in 2018 after a joint investigation, lasting more than two years, by a number of state and federal authorities including the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.
Prosecutors argued the bombing was a personal attack on Mr Bowen.
They said Perre's hostility towards him had grown because of their interactions following the seizure of a multi-million dollar cannabis crop in the Northern Territory in August 1993.
Perre elected not to give evidence but his defence team said the investigation into the bombing was plagued by tunnel vision.
The National Crime Authority office in Adelaide was bombed in 1994. Source: Supplied / SAPOL
He went on trial for murder and attempted murder in the Supreme Court in October 2020 after being jailed on drug trafficking charges unrelated to the bombing.
After a nearly year-long trial and more than six months of deliberations, Justice Kevin Nicholson found him guilty on both charges.
Perre will be sentenced at a later date.
Bombing a 'personal attack', prosecution says
The trial opened in October 2020 with the final evidence taken in June last year and the final defence submissions in August.
There was no jury after Perre elected to be tried by judge alone.
On the prosecution case, the bombing was a personal attack on Mr Bowen following the seizure of a multi-million-dollar drug crop in the Northern Territory in 1993.
On March 2, 1994, a parcel bomb exploded in the office of the National Crime Authority on the 12th floor of an office building in Waymouth Street, Adelaide. Source: Supplied / SAPOL
Some elements of the case have been kept secret with the court issuing more than 30 suppression orders.
