Killer of Jerry McCabe to be re-arrested on his release
Monday July 20 2009
GARDA killer Pearse McAuley will be re-arrested immediately upon his expected release next month by detectives armed with an extradition warrant.
McAuley is wanted in Britain after he escaped from London's Brixton prison where he was awaiting trial on charges of plotting to kill and cause explosions.
McAuley, along with fellow IRA killer Kevin Walsh, killed Detective Garda Jerry McCabe, in Adare, Co Limerick, in June 1996. They are due to be freed after completing most of their sentence.
Walsh, the leader of the IRA's so-called 'Munster unit' will walk out of Castlerea Prison early next month and head back home to Limerick. But McAuley will be met at the gates by gardai with an extradition warrant.
Conspiracy
McAuley is accused of conspiracy to murder brewery boss Charles Tidbury. Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist squad say he was part of an IRA unit operating in Britain during the late 1980s and early 1990s and after his jail escape, which involved a gun being hidden in the hollowed out heel of a shoe, he fled here and later joined up with the Munster outfit.
Both Walsh (52), from Patrickswell, Co Limerick, and McAuley (44), from Strabane, Co Tyrone, were sentenced to 14 years imprisonment by the Special Criminal Court in 1999. With quarter remission for good behaviour in jail, their sentences expire in the next few weeks.
Walsh is believed by gardai to have fired the shots which killed Det Garda McCabe and seriously injured his colleague, Det Garda Ben O'Sullivan, during a botched raid on a post office van in Adare, Co Limerick, in June 1996.
Four members of the terror unit pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of the detective. They had originally been charged with his murder but the State was forced to accept the manslaughter plea when key witnesses refused to co-operate after IRA intimidation.
Within hours of the shooting, anti-terrorist gardai were in no doubt about the identity of the gang involved. But Sinn Fein and the IRA continued to deny it was responsible until after the four men were convicted.
The men were then immediately accepted as IRA prisoners and Sinn Fein fought a lengthy campaign for their early release as part of the Northern Ireland peace process.
Sinn Fein leaders alleged that their release had been included in the Good Friday peace deal but this was strenuously denied by the Government, although the unit members were given favourable jail treatment by being transferred out of the top security jail in Portlaoise to their own bungalow in The Grove compound within the walls of Castlerea Prison in Co Roscommon.
Jeremiah Sheehy, from Rathkeale, Co Limerick, was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment for his role in the shooting and released from prison in February last year after serving nine years.
In May 2007, the fourth killer, Michael O'Neill, also from Patrickswell, was freed after serving more than eight years of an 11-year sentence.
A fifth man, John Quinn, of Faha, Patrickswell, was jailed for six years for conspiracy to commit the robbery of the post office van at Adare.
Two other men wanted by gardai for the murder remain on the run. One is from Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin, but had been living in Shannon, Co Clare, and he fled to Spain while the other is from Cork and is currently living in South America.
- Tom Brady and Barry Duggan
