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NCA bomber Domenic Perre seeking leave to appeal murder, attempted murder convictions

Domenic Perre was found guilty of the 1994 bombing last month. (ABC News)

Domenic Perre, who was found guilty of killing a detective and seriously injuring a lawyer in the 1994 National Crime Authority (NCA) bombing, is seeking leave to appeal against his conviction.

Perre sent a parcel bomb to Detective Sergeant Geoffrey Bowen's Waymouth Street office in March 1994 in revenge over the police officer's investigation into the Perre family's drug business.

Lawyer Peter Wallis was also seriously injured in the attack.

Perre, who lived at Salisbury at the time, was immediately identified as a suspect but the first set of charges were dropped in September 1994.

He was charged again in 2018. 

Last month, Justice Kevin Nicholson found him guilty of murder and attempted murder.

But Perre – who collapsed immediately following the guilty verdict – has now lodged an application in the Court of Criminal Appeal to appeal the conviction.

Detective Sergeant Geoffrey Bowen was killed in the bombing. (Supplied)

During the seven-month trial, the court heard Perre had demonstrated a keen interest in high explosives before the bombing, had access to methods for manufacturing high explosives and had access to all the components of the NCA bomb. 

The court also heard he had expressed extreme anger towards and an intention to "get" someone with "a postpak kind of thing".

Justice Nicholson found Perre was motivated to cause harm to the NCA and to Mr Bowen specifically, and had taken steps after the bombing to clean and remove items from his shed "at a level of obsession strongly indicative of a fear" that bomb residue might still be available to police.

"These matters, considered as a whole, establish beyond reasonable doubt that Domenic Perre constructed and posted the NCA bomb and caused the death of Mr Bowen and the injuries to Mr Wallis," Justice Nicholson said in his verdict last month.

"On my assessment of the circumstances, I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Mr Perre must have intended to kill anyone who happened to open the postpak whether or not Mr Bowen, and anyone else who happened to be with that person at the time of the detonation."

When Perre was found guilty, Genevieve Wallis said the family was sad that her father had not lived to see the verdict.  (ABC News: Che Chorley )


When Perre was found guilty of the crimes, Sergeant Bowen's brother-in-law David Gorton said justice had been served. 

"While many years have passed, this criminal act has remained at the forefront of our thoughts," he said

"Today's guilty verdict will allow us to move forward, knowing the individual who caused Geoffrey's death, amongst other serious crimes, has finally been convicted."

Mr Wallis died in 2018 from a stroke. 

After the verdict was delivered, his daughter Genevieve Wallis said she wished her father could have been there for the conviction.  

"There was no doubt he was a different person in the aftermath of the bombing," she said. 

"It is our greatest sadness that he is not here today — as a lawyer and a human, he valued truth and justice above all else."

The matter returns to court in August.

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