The man found guilty of the 1994 bombing of the National Crime Authority (NCA) headquarters in Adelaide has died.
Domenic Perre was last year sentenced to at least 30 years in jail for the bombing, which killed a police officer and caused horrific injuries to a lawyer.
Perre, who died in hospital last night and who was known to have health issues, was found to have sent a parcel bomb to the NCA site in Adelaide's CBD.
The daylight blast of March 2, 1994 claimed the life of Detective Sergeant Geoffrey Bowen and injured lawyer Peter Wallis, who lost an eye and received burns to 35 per cent of his body.
Perre sent the bomb to Sergeant Bowen's Waymouth Street office as revenge for the police officer's investigation into the Perre family's drug business.
Perre's death was confirmed by South Australia's Department for Correctional Services (DCS).
"DCS confirms the prisoner was pronounced deceased at 11:52pm [on] 8 May 2023 at the RAH," it said in a statement.
"Next of kin have been notified."
Following the bombing, Perre was immediately identified as a suspect, but the first set of charges were dropped in September 1994 before Perre was charged again in 2018.
After a seven-month trial in which prosecutors alleged he had a "festering hatred" towards police and in particular Sergeant Bowen, Perre was found guilty last June of murder and attempted murder by Justice Kevin Nicholson.
"Geoffrey Bowen was the target and he ended up dead. This was personal," then-prosecutor Sandi McDonald told the Supreme Court during the trial.
At the time of the conviction, he was already in custody on other charges.
During his trial, the Supreme Court was told Perre had been unwell.
Moments after being found guilty, the then-65-year-old collapsed and was taken to hospital for what the Department for Correction Services described as a "medical episode".
It was later revealed he had undergone heart surgery at the Royal Adelaide Hospital to remove a blockage in an artery.
In October, he was handed a life sentence with a non-parole period of 30 years and seven months — a time period which was not due to begin until Perre finished a six-year-and-10-month sentence for drug trafficking.
Perre had been seeking to have the guilty verdicts overturned, claiming there was a lack of direct evidence linking him to the bomb.
But at the start of the two-day appeal hearing, in February this year, it was noted that Perre was not present because of "ill health".
The 1994 NCA bombing remains one of Adelaide's most notorious crimes.
The blast on the 12th floor of the CPS Credit Union building, which housed the NCA headquarters, occurred at 9:15am on March 2, 1994.
Debris had spread some 200 metres from the scene, with Waymouth Street covered in shattered glass.
Sergeant Bowen, whose injuries were so extensive that he could not be moved from where he was found, left behind a wife and two children.
In victim impact statements to the court, Perre was described as "worthless" and a "stain on society".
A statement read out by the prosecution on behalf of Sergeant Bowen's widow, Jane Bowen-Sutton, described him as remorseless and evil.
"You, Domenic Perre, are evil," she said.
"You have never shown any remorse or taken responsibility for what you have done."
