Perre is due to appear in the South Australian Supreme Court on Friday when Justice Kevin Nicholson is likely to confirm Perre’s mandatory life sentence over the murder of Detective Geoffrey Bowen and the attempted murder of lawyer Peter Wallis.

Justice Nicholson may also set a non-parole period though the Crown has asked him not to impose a minimum term considering the seriousness of the offence.

Either way, given his age and that he is already in jail over drug offences, Perre is almost certain to die in prison.

Sgt Bowen died from horrific injuries, including the loss of his left arm, when a parcel bomb built and sent by Perre exploded in his office.

Wallis, who was standing nearby, lost an eye and suffered severe burns in the blast.

He died in 2018.

Handing down his guilty verdicts in June this year, Justice Nicholson found that Perre had intended to kill Sgt Bowen or anyone else who happened to open the package or be close by when it detonated.

“Mr Perre wanted to kill Mr Bowen but intended the NCA bomb to do its work and kill whomever it did,” the judge said.

Perre was first charged with murder soon after the bombing but the case against him was dropped six months later because of a lack of evidence.

He was arrested again in 2018 after a joint investigation, lasting more than two years, by a number of state and federal authorities including the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.

In an incredibly detailed and complex case, prosecutors argued the bombing was a personal attack on Sgt Bowen.

They said Perre’s hostility towards him had grown because of their interactions following the seizure of a multi-million dollar cannabis crop in the Northern Territory in August 1993.

Sgt Bowen’s son Simon, who followed his father’s footsteps into the police force, was just seven at the time of the blast.

“I struggle with the motive and relevance of your actions,” he told Perre in a victim impact statement last month.

“You caused so much irreparable damage and suffering all so you can grow some dope and walk about South Australia like a would-be gangster with your big black glasses.”

Sgt Bowen’s widow Jane Bowen-Sutton said her husband was killed on their ninth wedding anniversary and she had experienced never-ending grief.

“That day I told my seven and five-year-old sons that their much loved dad had been killed and we would never see him again. I’ve relived that conversation for 28 years,” she said.

Genevieve Wallis, who was eight-years-old when her father was injured, said the attack had left her traumatised, depressed and debilitated.

“The bombing had torn any sense of safety, belonging and privilege of being a child and it sickens me that a blatant disregard for human life can exist within another human,” she said.

Defence lawyer Gilbert Aitken told the court that Perre sympathised with the families of the victims but maintained his innocence.

He has lodged an appeal against his convictions.

-AAP