The High Court has ordered Wesley David Purse’s surrender to the United Kingdom under a European arrest warrant, dismissing his objections to being surrendered to serve a 12-year sentence and face prosecution for other alleged offences.
In a judgment delivered on 9 October 2020, Mr Justice Paul Burns found that surrender was not prohibited under section 45 of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003 or on fair trial grounds. The order was made under section 16 of the Act. Purse was already serving a five-year sentence in Ireland for offences under the Misuse of Drugs Acts; the judgment does not state when the surrender order would take effect.
The warrant sought his surrender to enforce a 12-year sentence imposed in the UK on 1 July 2016 for an offence relating to the supply of a controlled substance. It also sought his surrender for prosecution for wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, or unlawful wounding as an alternative, affray and possession of an offensive weapon in a public place.
Purse objected that he had been convicted and sentenced in his absence without adequate notice of the trial or a right to appeal or retrial. He said he had been told of a trial date in October 2015 but was absent when the case later proceeded, and believed he was not represented at sentencing. His counsel also argued that the offence of conviction appeared different from the charge at his arraignment and that surrender would breach fair trial protections.
Information from a UK prosecutor said Purse appeared in court on 18 August 2015, pleaded not guilty and was given a trial date of 13 October. He failed to attend that date, and a bench warrant was issued. The trial was later adjourned; records said it proceeded in his absence in June 2016, with conviction and sentence recorded on 1 July. In further information, the prosecutor said Purse was represented throughout the trial and sentencing. The prosecutor could not categorically confirm the charge history from the records, but said Purse had been convicted of conspiring to supply cocaine between 1 April and 17 July 2014. The prosecutor also said Purse had no right to apply for an extension to seek leave to appeal, and that an extension was unlikely given the time elapsed.
The judge found that Purse had been aware of an ongoing trial process and had decided to absent himself. He concluded that the warrant’s required statements about his absence and notice were present, and that the additional information showed he had given a lawyer a mandate to defend him. The judge also rejected the fair trial objection concerning the amended or substituted charge, finding no established breach of fundamental rights. A separate objection based on the UK’s departure from the EU was not pursued at the hearing and was rejected as having no merit.