An American pensioner who came to Ireland 30 years ago and applied for passports in the names of two dead babies will be sentenced on Monday, 22 April.
Evidence was heard at the Circuit Criminal Court in Cork city this afternoon in the case against 73-year old Randolph Kirk Parker.
Mr Parker was due to be sentenced today when he was brought to the court from Cork Prison.
The court was told that Mr Parker is originally from Michigan in the US and came to Ireland through Shannon Airport in 1988.
He has lived here and in Amsterdam and has also travelled around Europe, the court heard.
He was arrested at the passport office in Co Cork last September, as he attempted to collect a passport in the name of Philip Frank Morris.
He also had a passport in the name of Geoffrey Warbrook.
Detective Garda Padraic Hanley, of the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, told the court that Philip Frank Morris and Geoffrey Warbrook were babies born in Ireland in the 1950s who had died within months of their birth.
The court was told a team of detectives was set up within the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, where it took gardaí several weeks to confirm Mr Parker’s true identity.
Gardaí shared Mr Parker’s fingerprints with Interpol.
Interpol contacted some of their 195 member countries and Mr Parker was identified through an FBI record of his arrest in 1970 when he was a student.
Ten-year maximum sentence
Mr Parker has pleaded guilty to four counts of using false information to obtain passports and one count of possessing a false document.
The court was told the maximum sentence is ten years in jail.
In court, Mr Parker was described as affable and articulate by the prosecution, and as pleasant and co-operative by his own legal team.
Det Garda Hanley described the case as “unusual”.
“He didn’t co-operate; he refused to answer any questions, but he wasn’t obstructive. He was affable and articulate,” he said.
Parker a ‘man of books’, court told
When it was put to Det Garda Hanley that Mr Parker had been working in the prison library since his arrest, he replied: “That doesn’t surprise me – he is a man of books.”
Det Garda Hanley said Mr Parker did not appear to have any family connections in this country.
He said Mr Parker had “numerous” friends, although they all knew him under a different identity.
He held medical insurance through the VHI and had a post box address in Dublin.
Det Garda Hanley said Mr Parker had indicated he would be pleading guilty at the earliest opportunity.
It is believed that he has no previous convictions.
Judge Jonathan Dunphy told Mr Parker he would not finalise his decision today and adjourned sentencing until Monday week, April 22.
Mr Parker was remanded in custody until then.
