The High Court ordered the surrender of Perry John Wharrie to the United Kingdom under a European arrest warrant, rejecting objections based on the likely delay before surrender could take place and the UK life-sentence regime.
In a judgment delivered on 22 January 2009, Mr Justice Michael Peart held that the court had to decide the surrender application then, even though Mr Wharrie was serving a 30-year sentence in Ireland and any surrender might be postponed for many years. The judge said the European Arrest Warrant Act provides for postponing implementation of a surrender order, but does not provide for delaying the application itself until a sentence in Ireland is nearly complete.
The warrant sought Mr Wharrie’s return to prison to serve the balance of four life sentences imposed in the UK in 1989 for murder, robbery and two firearm offences. He had been released on licence in 2005. The UK Secretary of State revoked that licence in February 2006 after breaches of its conditions, including leaving his address without permission and travelling outside Great Britain without permission. The judgment said a review by the Parole Board and a judicial review challenge remained available to him.
The respondent argued that the punitive part of the life sentences had already been served and that surrender could expose him to preventive detention, which he said was incompatible with Irish constitutional protections. The judge accepted that the UK system differed from Ireland’s, but concluded that Mr Wharrie would have rights to make representations and obtain a Parole Board review of his recall. On the evidence before the court, surrender would not breach the Constitution or the European Convention on Human Rights.
The court also rejected the argument that Mr Wharrie had not “fled” the UK within the meaning of section 10 because he had completed the punitive part of his sentences. Under the law of the issuing state, the judge said, the sentences were not complete: release was conditional and recall remained possible, subject to review.
The judgment ordered surrender under section 16 of the Act. It did not decide when that order would be implemented. The judge said he would address any application to postpone surrender because Mr Wharrie was serving his Irish sentence.