Man Cut into Pieces and Thrown in River

It was a grisly discovery: the decomposing remains of an adult male carefully wrapped in six blue plastic packages bound with duct tape and wire.

The remains, found floating on the picturesque Hastings River in northern NSW in 2001, were those of Terry Falconer, an inmate at Sydney’s Silverwater jail who had been let out on day release a few months before.

This week in the NSW Supreme Court a jury has heard allegations of what happened to Terry Falconer during the murder trial of Anthony John Michael Perish and Matthew Robert Lawton.

Perish’s younger brother, Andrew Robert Perish, is also on trial for conspiracy to murder. Crown prosecutor Paul Leask told the jury yesterday that Falconer had been working in a smash repairers in the south-west Sydney suburb of Ingleburn as part of his day release when a blue Commodore, modified to look like an unmarked police car, pulled up.

The three men inside were posing as undercover police officers. Mr Leask says the three men were not the three on trial but connected to them, and their names have been suppressed because they are expected to give evidence.

The court heard that Falconer was searched, handcuffed and put inside the vehicle by the men, before one of them covered his face with a rag doused with a powerful drug, possibly chloroform.

The unconscious Falconer was driven a short distance to where a van was parked, dragged out of the car and placed in a large metal box inside the vehicle.

The group then separated, with two of the men leaving in the Commodore and the third – known in the trial as Witness A – driving away with Falconer.

Witness A then allegedly drove Falconer to a house at North Turramurra where two of the accused – Anthony Perish and Matthew Lawton – were waiting. They opened the box, confirming the right man had been taken, before Anthony Perish directed it be closed again and the lid locked.

The box was placed on a ute and driven to the small town of Girvan on the mid-north coast of NSW. When it was opened again, Terry Falconer was dead.

The jury was told that Anthony Perish and Matthew Lawton then set about dismembering Falconer’s body, taking great care to remove his teeth and smash them to prevent identification.

He was then allegedly wrapped in plastic and thrown into the Hastings River.

The motive for the crime, Mr Leask said, dated back to the mysterious shooting murder of Anthony and Andrew Perish’s grandparents in 1993 in the south-western Sydney suburb of Leppington.

The court heard that the two brothers believed that Falconer was responsible for the death and went to police with this allegation.

In August 2001, when Mr Falconer’s wife showed Andrew Perish a police document which indicated her husband’s preparedness to become a police informant in relation to the crime, the brothers were reportedly furious.

Two months later ‘‘a firm plan’’ had been agreed upon to kill Mr Falconer, Mr Leask said. In a meeting at a restaurant in the inner Sydney suburb of Newtown, the brothers met with another man to discuss the disposal of the body.

Anthony Perish allegedly arranged to dress as a fisherman, saying: ‘‘There will be a couple of eskies because the c--- will be in pieces.’’

Mr Leask said jurors would hear evidence that connected Anthony Perish and Matthew Lawton to the crime, including a set of keys for the property at North Turramurra which were found in Perish’s possession.

He said that Anthony Perish’s fingerprints were found inside the house at Girvan, while maps of the Hastings River system were found in the back shed.

Police also reportedly discovered a pit which contained rusted saw blades, a broken hammer and flat pieces of metal which were believed to be part of the metal box Falconer was transported in.

But in their opening submissions yesterday, the defence barristers for the three accused disputed crucial elements of this story. Carolyn Davenport, SC, for Anthony Perish, said he had only wanted to question Mr Falconer over his grandparents’ death.

Panicking when Mr Falconer arrived dead, Anthony Perish decided to hide his involvement in the abduction and contacted Lawton. They then dismembered the body, Ms Davenport said.

Stephen Hanley, SC, for Lawton, said his client had been called to the property by Anthony Perish and he could not have been involved in the murder because Mr Falconer was already dead when he arrived.

Winston Terracini, SC, for Andrew Perish, said the prime witness against his client, known as ‘‘Witness E’’, had ‘‘zero credibility’’ and was completely unreliable. The trial, before Justice Derek Price, continues.