McCabe prisoner saga: 'We cannot keep doing the same thing and expecting different results... he has failed the test time and time again'
The DUP’s justice spokeswoman has said that “we cannot keep repeating the same mistakes” over the disappearance of killer Thomas McCabe.
Joanne Bunting said that there is a long way to go “before he is even remotely considered for release on license again”.
McCabe, 60, was returned to prison in Northern Ireland on Tuesday after having run away to the Republic of Ireland while out on temporary release from Maghaberry jail in August 2023.
He had done the exact same thing in 2018, when it took two years to recapture him.
In fact, he has now been unlawfully at large at least seven times since he was jailed for murder in 1990.
Aged 26, and already with a “lengthy criminal record” according to court documents, he killed an 18-year-old stranger (Richard Hunt) by beating him repeatedly in the face with a metal scaffolding pipe.
He was given a life sentence with a minimum tariff of 11 years.
The life sentence means he is liable to being recalled to jail for the rest of his life if he breaches his licence or commits more crimes, which he has repeatedly done.
When the News Letter reported that he had once again gone missing last year, Ms Bunting had said: “The public will find it hard to fathom why he was deemed a suitable candidate for temporary release from prison in the first place...
"Serious criminals should not be facilitated to become serial on-the-runs by rules that do not take into account previous escapes.”
This time around, she has told the News Letter: "It is obviously welcome that Mr McCabe has been caught and returned to prison in Northern Ireland, but my previous comments still stand in circumstances where he has repeatedly absconded.
“Clearly we cannot keep repeating the same mistakes and expecting a different outcome without further work.
“It seems to me that much more rehabilitation must be done with Mr McCabe before he is even remotely considered for release on license again when he has repeatedly demonstrated he cannot abide by the rules.
"Prisoners towards the end of their sentences should of course be afforded opportunities to be released, make good choices and get on with their lives, but this man has now had seven chances and has failed each and every time.
“Until he can abide by the conditions and return as and when he is supposed to without absconding, he is not ready to be released into wider society and should not be until he can prove that he is capable of abiding by society's rules.”
The News Letter has repeatedly raised the issue of serious criminals going missing – something which happens on a fairly regular basis.
For example, back in August Dean Michael Woods – who beat a man's head in at the Ballysally estate outside Coleraine in 1995 – went "unlawfully at large" from Maghaberry while on pre-release testing.