A United States citizen jailed for applying for false Irish passports in the names of two dead children has been deported back to the United States.
Randolph Kirk Parker (73) was sentenced to 3½ years in jail with 15 months suspended at Cork Circuit Criminal Court in April 2024.
Parker, who grew up in Michigan, pleaded guilty earlier to four counts of providing false information to obtain Irish passports in the names of two dead infants and a fifth charge of possessing an Irish driving licence he knew to be false.
He had been on remand since his arrest in September 2023. With remission for good behaviour, he was released from Cork Prison on Thursday morning and taken by gardaí to Dublin Airport on foot of a deportation order signed earlier this year by Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan.
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Parker left Dublin on an afternoon Aer Lingus flight accompanied by gardaí from the Garda National Immigration Bureau. Upon his arrival at O’Hare Airport in Chicago later on Thursday, he was expected to be handed over to officers from the US Immigration Customs Enforcement.
Parker was caught after officials in the Irish Passport Services’ integrity section used facial recognition technology and noticed a match between two passport applicants: Geoffrey Warbrook, with an address in Dublin, and Philip Morris, with an address at Dunbeacon in west Cork.
Det Garda Pádraig Hanley and Det Garda Joanne O’Sullivan arrested Parker at the passport office in Cork when he called to collect one of the false documents.
Gardaí learned that Geoffrey Warbrook had died in 1952 while still an infant, while Philip Morris had died in infancy in 1952. When questioned, Parker, who had also obtained an Irish driving licence using the false name of Philip Morris, refused to reveal his real identity.
Inquiries through Interpol led to US intelligence services confirming his fingerprints matched Parker’s.
Gardaí established that he landed at Shannon Airport in 1988 using his legitimate US passport in the name of Randolph Kirk Parker. It appeared he never used that name in Ireland, introducing himself and opening bank accounts in yet another name: Ray Travis.
At Parker’s sentencing, his barrister, Brendan Kelly, said his client came to Europe on business in the late 1980s. Mr Kelly said Parker experienced some difficulties with his visa and was advised by a business associate in relation to the Irish passport system.
Parker, who graduated with a degree in television and radio from Michigan State University in 1973, was represented by solicitor Frank Buttimer, who said Parker rang him on Thursday to thank him and inform him he was being deported. The solicitor wished him well for his future in the US.
“He has a very calm demeanour. Nothing seemed to faze him,” Mr Buttimer said. “Arrest, charge and sentence, which he accepted without question and which he didn’t appeal. He is unquestionably one of the most unusual clients I have come across in my 40 years as a criminal defence lawyer.”
