Anthony Perish the “mastermind” of the abduction, murder and dismemberment of convicted drug dealer Terry Falconer has been jailed for at least 18 years.
His brother, Andrew Perish, was also sentenced today, to at least nine years, for his role in the death of Falconer in November 2001.
Falconer’s body was found cut up and wrapped in plastic bags in the Hastings River soon after.
Last year, Anthony Perish, 42, and Matthew Lawton, 45, were found guilty in the NSW Supreme Court of his murder.
Andrew Perish, 41, was found guilty of conspiracy to murder.
Today, Justice Derek Price jailed Lawton for at least 15 years.
Justice Price found the Perish brothers were motivated by the murder of their grandparents, who were gunned down at their property in Leppington in 1993.
The brothers believed Falconer was responsible for the double murder.
Falconer was abducted from an Ingleburn smash repairers, where he was on work release from prison, by three associates of the men, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
He was assaulted and his mouth was covered with chloroform before he was put into a galvanised steel box.
He was driven to Anthony Perish’s property in Turramurra, where the box was transferred to the back of a utility.
From there, Falconer was driven to Girvan, where his body was cut up and placed in seven plastic bags and dumped in the Hastings River.
Whether Falconer was alive when he arrived at the Turramurra property was at issue during the trial.
Today, Justice Price said that, on the evidence, Falconer was already dead.
However, this did not detract from the fact that Anthony Perish and Lawton intended to murder and dismember Falconer.
Anthony Perish will serve a maximum of 24 years, Andrew Perish a maximum of 12 years and Lawton a maximum of 20 years.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/killers-of-dismembered-drug-dealer-jailed-20120413-1wxoh.html
READ MORE ABOUT KILLER ANTHONY PERISH AND THE EXCITING SERIES: UNDERBELLY: BADNESS
HISTORIC NEWS: The following article appeared in St George & Sutherland Shire Leader on 22 January 2009:
A Rockdale man arrested in a police raid on a cafe at McMahons Point on Monday is at the heart of a police investigation into five murders, four suspected murders and two attempted murders.
The investigation includes the disappearance of Victorian man Paul Elliot, 21, who was last seen at Wolli Creek on December 6 and the shooting of a man, 41, at Peakhurst Inn early on October 14, 2001.
Anthony John Michael Perish, 39, whose last known address was Princes Highway, Rockdale, was arrested along with Sean Lawrence Waygood, 38, when heavily armed police burst into the cafe during the lunchtime rush.
Both men have been charged with conspiring to murder Terry Falconer, a day-release prisoner abducted from a smash repair business in Ingleburn in 2001.
Falconer’s dismembered body was found in bags floating in the Hastings River on the North Coast 10 days later.
He was one of 20 suspects into the killings of Perish’s grandparents Anthony Perish senior, 93, and Frances Perish, 91, who were found murdered in their Leppington home in June 1993.
Police said Strike Force Tuno, formed to investigate Falconer’s murder, was expanded when new information came to light last year.
The new strike force, Strike Force Tuno 2, included detectives from the homicide, gangs, drugs, property crime, fraud and Middle-Eastern organised crime squads.
Strike force detectives are investigating the Falconer and Perish murders, the murder of Greg McDonald who was shot at Wetherill Park in January 1991 and the murder of Michael Davies who was found dead from a gunshot wound in his Gold Coast unit in April 2002.
Also under investigation are the suspicious deaths of a mother and her son, 3, found dead at the base of a Gold Coast cliff in 2003, the disappearance from Queenbeyan of a man in 1999, the disappearance of Ian Drapper from Mount Pritchard in 2001 and the attempted murder of a New Zealand man in a Haymarket pub in 2002.
Police said Strike Force Tuno 2 detectives arrested a Killarney Heights man, 24, on Tuesday night and charged him in relation to the seizure of drugs and firearms at a storage facility on December 16 last year.
http://www.theleader.com.au/news/local/news/general/raid-nets-murder-suspects/1413971.aspx