No comment on claim on-the-run murderer lived openly in Republic of Ireland as Naomi Long apologises over case
Police on both sides of the border have declined to comment on claims that an on-the-run murderer has been living openly in the Republic for months, as the justice minister issued an apology over his disappearance.
James Meehan has spent the last nine months on the run after absconding while on temporary release from HMP Magilligan.
He has now been taken into custody by gardai, and an application is being made to extradite him back to Northern Ireland, with Meehan due in court in Dublin next Wednesday.
It is at least the third time that Meehan, 55, has gone on the run, the previous occasion having been in 2022, when he also fled to the Republic while on temporary release.
UUP MLA Doug Beattie has been following the case, and has been in touch with the family of Meehan's victim, James McFadden.
He told the News Letter: “I would dispel the myth of saying he was 'recaptured'. They knew where he was.
“Everybody knew where he was. For goodness sake, I knew where he was. The family knew where he was ... because he was in the same place he was the last time [he went on the run].”
He said that he had been in the village of Kells in Co Meath; Mr Beattie had also made the same claim in the assembly in June.
He added that “I don't know why it takes so long” for the PSNI to begin extradition proceedings, “because I wrote to them quite some time ago” about the issue.
Mr Beattie also said that “the system is an utter disgrace”, adding that the justice minister “cannot shrug her shoulders on this one”.
His claim was put to the PSNI, who referred the News Letter to An Garda Siochana.
It in turn said that “this office cannot comment on named individuals,” adding: “As this matter is now before the courts, we cannot comment further.”
Mr Beattie wants to see the criteria for allowing prisoners out on temporary release toughened up, and said absconders should be given stiff sentences once they are returned to custody.
Speaking to Radio Ulster, Justice Minister Naomi Long was asked if she would say sorry to the family of Mr Fadden.
“Of course I would apologise, because victims are always at the heart of what we try to do within the justice system,” she replied.
“We will not always get it right. And even when we follow the correct processes in the correct way, there will always be a small number of prisoners who don't avail of every opportunity we offer them for rehabilitation, for reform, to rebuild their lives, and to be constructive members of society.”
Meehan had been at a wedding in Donegal in May 2007, when a dispute developed between his family and Mr McFadden, who was a 42-year-old father of four.
Meehan and two others (including a woman) then went to Mr McFadden's home in Londonderry city, waited for him to come home, then attacked him.
His trial heard that Mr McFadden had suffered three lacerations of the heart, almost certainly caused by blows to the chest like a forceful kick or stamping, as well as fractures to his sternum and ribs.
Meehan was sentenced to a minimum of 14 years.