Trimbole case started

Press, 31 October 1984, Page 10

Trimbole case started

NZPA-AAP Griffith A cord pulled in Griffith, south-west New South Wales, has begun to draw in the legal net with which the Australian Federal Government hopes to catch the fugitive “Crime Boss” Robert Trimbole. As Trimbole’s Irish lawyers worked to have him released from jail in Dublin, the Australian Government was working just as quickly to have him extradited to face a series of charges.

The Griffith move involved a rarely used proce-

dure under the Extradition (Foreign States) Act. Under that Act the Attorney-General, Senator Gareth Evans, has appointed Mr John Dugan, S.M., to gather evidence under oath which is designed to show a prima facie case against Trimbole. The material Mr Dugan gathers will be a vital element in the Federal Government’s request to Ireland to extradite Trimbole.

He is wanted in Australia in connection with a large number of alleged offences, which include involvement

in the murder of the Griffith anti-drug campaigner Donald Mackay, and in the murder of the former “Mr Asia” syndicate drug couriers Douglas and Isobel Wilson. At Griffith yesterday the hearing was an anti-climax for the scores of journalists who had come from the capitals to cover the latest development in the Trimbole story. The hearing was short: it began just before 11 a.m. and ended about midday, after brief evidence from 12 witnesses.