A 72-year-old man, who was identified with the assistance of the FBI, has been sent forward for sentence after he entered a signed plea of guilty to falsely applying for Irish passports in the name of two dead infants,
American Randolph Parker on Thursday indicated through his solicitor Frank Buttimer that he was entering signed pleas of guilty to four counts of providing false information to obtain an Irish passport and a fifth charge of possessing a driving licence which he knew to be false.
Mr Buttimer told Judge Mary Dorgan at Cork District Court that Mr Parker had confirmed the signed pleas of guilty, thus obviating the need for gardaí to prepare of book of evidence in the five charges which the DPP had directed be tried on indictment at Circuit Court level.
Investigating officer Det Gda Padraig Hanly of the Garda National Bureau of Crime Investigation applied to have a sixth charge of obstructing a garda by giving a false name to the officer struck out. The DPP had directed that the charge be dealt with summarily at District Court level.
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Sgt Pat Lyons applied to have Mr Parker returned for sentence to Cork Circuit Criminal Court on February 14th and he applied to have him remanded in continuing custody to that date. Judge Mary Dorgan granted the application and returned Mr Parker for sentence at the higher court.
Mr Parker was first charged last September with two offences that he provided false information in relation to a passport application in the name Philip Morris on a date between September 12th and 25th, 2012 and again on June 7th, 2022 at the Passport Office, South Mall, Cork.
And then in October, Mr Parker was charged with a third offence that he provided false or misleading information or documents at the Cork Passport Office on September 11th 2023, when he applied for a passport in the name of Geoffrey Warbrook.
And in January, Mr Parker was further charged that he provided false information in relation to a passport application in the name of Philip Morris on September 14th 2023 and that he had an Irish driving licence in the name Philip Morris on the same date, knowing it to be false.
At a previous court hearing, Det Gda Hanly said that gardaí had spoken with relatives of both Philip Morris and Geoffrey Warbrook, in whose names Mr Parker had made the four false passport applications, and confirmed that both persons had died in 1952 and 1953 when they were infants.
Det Gda Hanly said gardaí had established from inquiries with the FBI and the forwarding of finger print samples taken from the accused that he is Randolph Parker, a US citizen born on March 7th 1951 after the FBI got a match with Mr Parker’s fingerprints on their files following an arrest in 1970.
Mr Buttimer said at that previous hearing that his client, who until then had declined to tell gardaí who he was, was happy to acknowledge that he was Randolph Kirk Parker with a date of birth of March 7th 1951, as stated by Det Gda Hanly.
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