Walter Mitty

Earl's barrister Paul Hynes KC described his client as "a sad individual" and compared him to the deluded fictional character Walter Mitty.

The attorney compared him to Walter Mitty, the character with the boring office job who escapes into elaborate imaginative worlds — a defense Sexton hated.

Commander Murphy likened Khalife to the self-aggrandising fictional character Walter Mitty, who daydreamed about extraordinary personal triumphs.

He was described as a "Walter Mitty" character who had changed his name several times and had 32 convictions over 15 years in three countries.

"Interstellar used an ice glacier as a stand in for another planet and then there was Batman Begins, Game of Thrones and the Secret Life of Walter Mitty with Ben Stiller," he said.