US pensioner accused of applying for passports by using names of dead babies faces new charges
FBI assisted gardaí in efforts to identify mystery man
AN AMERICAN pensioner who was previously indicted with applying for passports in the names of two dead babies has been charged with three new offences.
In November last year, Cork District Court heard that the former mystery man had been positively identified as 72-yearold Randolph Kirk Parker.
Detective Garda Pádraig Hanley, of the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, said they had been able to identify the accused with the assistance of the FBI and the US Embassy.
He also said that the man in custody had a birth date of March 7, 1951 and was a US national with an FBI record.
Yesterday at Cork District Court, Det Gda Hanley said Mr Parker made no reply when charged with three additional offences.
Mr Parker was yesterday handed further charges of providing false information in order to obtain a passport at the Cork Passport Office in 2013; giving a false name to gardaí at the Bridewell Garda Station in Cork when he was arrested in September of last year; and possession of a driving licence obtained by using a false name on the date that he was arrested.
Dt Gda Hanley told Judge Mary Dorgan that the Director of Public
Further remanded in custody
Prosecutions (DPP) had directed trial by indictment on all of the charges, except the one where Mr Parker is charged with giving gardaí a false name at the station in Cork city centre.
Defence solicitor Frank Buttimer, applied for a précis (summary) of the prosecution evidence to enable his client in considering whether to enter signed pleas of guilty.
Alternatively, a book of evidence may be needed in the case.
Judge Dorgan adjourned the case until this Thursday.
Mr Parker was further remanded in custody until that date.
He will appear in court via video link on Thursday.
The pensioner, who was wearing a dark jacket and trousers, appeared in court in person yesterday. He did not speak during the brief hearing.
The court previously heard that Interpol had liaised with all 195 of the organisation’s member countries in order to help gardaí identify the man.
Mr Parker was previously charged with providing false information to obtain passports in the names of two infants who were born in the 1950s, but died within months of their birth.
Det Gda Hanley previously said that when questioned, the man said he was living in Ireland and needed a passport to leave the country. However, he had refused to assist officers in any way, and refused to tell them his true identity, the court was told.
Det Gda Hanley also previously told the court that a number of addresses in Ireland may or may not be linked with the man.
Gardaí have been in touch with the RSA, the Residential Tenancies Board, the ESB and VHI.
A team was set up to carry out enquiries and to liaise with Interpol, the court heard.
Mr Parker was arrested on September 15, 2023, at the passport office on South Mall in Cork city. He was charged in the name of Philip Frank Morris, of no fixed address, with a date of birth in the 1950s.
Mr Parker was charged with two offences relating to him allegedly providing false or misleading information in order to obtain a passport.
Det Gda Hanley previously told the court that the man allegedly used the name of a baby, Philip Frank Morris, who was born in
December 1952 but had died shortly afterwards, to apply for a passport in Cork.
He also said that the man held an Irish passport for three decades but only recently obtained a PPS number.
Det Gda Hanley said they had spoken to the brother of the late Philip Morris, who died at the age of four months in 1953. The accused, now identified as Mr Parker, was subsequently charged with an additional offence.
Det Gda Hanley said that the man made no reply when he was charged with providing information or documents which were false or misleading on September 11 last at the passport office in South Mall. The court heard that Mr Parker allegedly had a passport in the name of Geoffrey Warbrook.
However, Det Gda Hanley said gardaí had spoken to relatives of Geoffrey Warbrook who confirmed that he had died as a young baby in the early 1950s.
He said: ‘Both of those two people (Philip Morris and Geoffrey Warbook) died.
‘We have interviewed siblings of both of those people who died in 1952 and 1953. They died within months of their birth.’
He said that ‘we are satisfied that he is not Philip Morris or Geoffrey Warbrook’, referring to the two names on passports allegedly seized from the man.
‘We’ve interviewed siblings’