A former district court judge already serving a prison sentence for deception will be sentenced in March after pleading guilty to a further charge of false accounting.
Heather Perrin (61) is serving a 2½ year sentence for attempting to deceive her elderly friend out of half of his estate while he was a client of her solicitors firm.
Perrin appeared for arraignment before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court yesterday after her solicitor applied to the court for a production order from the Dóchas Centre on Thursday to allow her enter her guilty plea.
Falsify an account
Perrin of Lambay Court, Malahide pleaded guilty that between May 25th, 2004, and February 2nd, 2009, within the State dishonestly with the intention of making a gain for herself or another or of causing a loss to another she did falsify an account, namely an eight-page document entitled “Cash Account, Estate of Gary Doyle Deceased.”
Judge Mary Ellen Ring set a sentence date on March 13th when full facts will be heard in the case.
Perrin was convicted by a jury following an eight-day trial last November of deceptively inducing Thomas Davis to bequeath half of his estate to Sybil and Adam Perrin at her office on Fairview Strand on January 22nd, 2009.
The verdict marked the first occasion in the history of the Republic that a judge had been found guilty of a serious crime.
Perrin offered her resignation to the President prior to her sentencing.
Heather Perrin Media blackout denied
Former judge Heather Perrin’s defence team tried to have a media blackout imposed on her trial last year it can now be reported.
They argued that coverage of the trial would prejudice Perrin’s second trial, due to begin this March. That trial has now being cancelled after her guilty plea to falsifying an account with the intention of making a gain.
At the start of her trial last November at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court Judge Mary Ellen Ring agreed that the trial could be reported after hearing counter-arguments from lawyers from several media organisations.
The judge agreed to allow reporting on the condition that no mention was made of the pending second trial or of the defence application.
Perrin was later found guilty by a jury of deceiving her elderly friend into leaving half his €1 million estate to her two children while she was his solicitor in January 2009.