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August/September VILLAGE
on Phillipsburg Avenue in Fairview, Dublin,
which was sold in . A sum of €,
was deposited in the client account of
Bridget and Frank Murray by Perrin and
is at the heart of the latest allegations of
impropriety.
Perrin was also given power of attorney
over all of their assets by the siblings in
allowing her to access their bank accounts.
Documents seen by Village indicate that she
took money from Frank Murray’s account.
She claims she paid him back when he was
a patient in the Nazareth Nursing Home on
the Malahide Road in Donnycarney, and at
two other nursing homes from until
he died in . Perrin produced receipts
for the monies totalling €, which
she claimed to have given the elderly and
ill patient, a claim that is hotly disputed by
his surviving relatives.
According to Ben McGarry, the son-in-
law of the surviving Murray sibling William,
the wills drafted by Perrin raise serious
suspicions.
“There are serious inconsistencies and
inaccuracies in each of the wills and we are
concerned that the assets to be distributed
are not going to where Bridget and Frank
would have wished. There is also a ques-
tion surrounding significant monies which
Heather Perrin said were paid in cash to
Frank when he was in the nurs-
ing homes. He was well known
for being very frugal with money
and he also had no way of spend-
ing such amounts”, he said.
In a version of Frank Murray’s
will made in he purports
to leave a right to reside in the
house on Phillipsburg Avenue to
his sister, Bridget. In fact, Frank
Murray never owned the house
and merely shared it with his sis-
ter who owned it then.
Meanwhile, in a will purport-
edly drafted for Bridget Murray,
no property is left to her brother,
Frank, even though he was alive and was
sharing her home. If acted upon he would
have been homeless in the event that his sis-
ter predeceased him. Different versions
of the will were later prepared by Perrin.
Both signed wills were witnessed by two
D
ISGRACED former judge, Heather
Perrin, may have done her time
but some of those whose wills she
administered are still awaiting justice. The
remaining sibling of Bridget and Frank
Murray who lived in Fairview and whose
wills were drawn up by Perrin, who unusu-
ally had been a solicitor not a barrister, has
raised serious questions about the manner
in which she dealt with their affairs.
Perrin received a two and half year jail
sentence in November for inducing
an elderly client to leave half of his € mil-
lion estate to her two children while he was
a client of her solicitors firm in . In
, she received a further two years for
falsifying the account of an estate with the
intention of making a gain.
Following her release from jail in recent
weeks, Perrin now faces an allegation by
William Murray that she did not properly
handle the affairs of his late brother and sis-
ter before they died in July and May
, respectively. Two wills were drafted
on their behalf by Perrin in early and
significant monies were left to three chari-
ties including the St Vincent De Paul which is
now the administrator of Bridget Murray’s
estate.
Bridget and Frank Murray lived in a house
members of Perrin’s staff, one of whom is
Pauline Ball. Village could not make con-
tact with Ms Ball but she told the District
Court during Perrin’s trial in that she
had signed documents including wills at the
request of her employer.
Following the discovery of irregularities
in her various client accounts after her prac-
tice was taken over by O’Hanrahan Quaney
Solicitors, William Murray was alerted by
the Garda Fraud Squad to inconsistencies
in the wills drafted for his late siblings.
He found discrepancies in the signatures
of his late brother and sister and other
inconsistencies.
In particular, he discovered that Bridget’s
will was prepared ten days before she was
admitted to St Vincent’s psychiatric hospital
in Fairview in January suggesting that
she was not in the full of her mental health
at the time. He was also surprised that the
wills left significant sums to St Vincent De
Paul and three other charities rather than
another charity with which his siblings had
an association.
While the Garda Fraud Squad was investi-
gating the authenticity of the Murray wills
the distribution of assets to the named ben-
eficiaries was delayed. As a beneficiary and
also administrator on behalf of the other
charities St Vincent de Paul is in a difficult
dillema as to how the proceeds of the wills
should be distributed given the genuine
concerns of William Murray. A spokesper-
son for St Vincent de Paul said that it may
be a matter to be resolved through discus-
sions between its solicitors and O’Hanrahan
Quaney, which took over Perrin’s practice,
and with Michael E Hanahoe Solicitors act-
ing for William Murray.
“I believe that St Vincent de Paul would
look favourably at any request from solici-
tors acting for the Murray family to meet
and discuss these issues”, he told Village.
The fraud squad is also probing whether
she misappropriated €, in a separate
property deal for the Church of Ireland.
Given that there may be questions sur-
rounding other wills drafted by Heather
Perrin it is likely that the devastating trail
of destruction she has left behind her will
continue long after she has retired into the
legal sunset. •
Questions for disgraced Judge Perrin about Murray family wills and V de P
bequest. By Frank Connolly
Whither Heather
HEATHER PERRIN NEWS
Inaccuracies in
each of the wills
mean the assets
are not going to
where Bridget
and Frank
would have
wished
“
Perrin after
her release
