Paramiltary past of Damien McLaughlin, the man who fled jurisdiction while on bail

He had been freed from prison after serving a sentence for weapons offences.

A significant cache of guns and munitions had been discovered in the west of the Province in September 2009 – two rifles, a shotgun with a shortened barrel, as well as two silencers.

A raft of bullets were also discovered, including 55 hollow-point rounds – a controversial kind designed to unfurl inside the body on impact.

McLaughlin pleaded guilty to firearms possession in suspicious circumstances, and to two charges of possessing articles for use in terrorism (namely, two sniper scopes), in May 2011.

Taking into account all the legal factors, he could have faced a sentence of perhaps 15 years.

Instead he was given four-and-a-half years (half to be spent in custody, half on licence) and was free by the end of the year – probably due to time spent on remand during the case.

The PPS said they did not feel it was possible to appeal the length of the sentence.

In December 2012, McLaughlin stood before a court again, charged with preparing terrorist acts in relation to the murder of prison officer David Black.

He was let out on bail in May 2014.

Then as time went on his bail conditions were relaxed, including the removal of his electronic tag.

He felt sufficiently free to attend an anti-police demonstration in September 2016, where he was pictured holding a placard at Woodbourne police station, west Belfast (in a photo publicised by the Irish Republican Prisoners’ Welfare Association).

A date for his trial was finally set for February 2017.

But after signing for bail in mid-November 2016, something he was required to do regularly throughout the week, he disappeared.

Police did not notice he had absconded for about five weeks, and the courts were not notified for about another 10 days after that.

Once they were eventually told, an arrest warrant was issued.

In March 2017, armed Gardai detained him as he walked along a street in Ramelton, Donegal.

Even then, once in the custody of Irish authorities, his lawyer indicated his intention to apply for bail.

McLaughlin mounted a failed challenge against his extradition to Northern Ireland on the grounds that full body searches at Maghaberry would be inhuman and degrading, but a court agreed to extradite him last December – finally paving the way for his trial.