'Border Fox' O'Hare freed from prison - reports

Former INLA leader Dessie O'Hare has been granted extended temporary release, it has been confirmed.

O'Hare, the so-called Border Fox, was in Castlerea prison, Co Roscommon, from where he has previously granted release on a temporary basis.

O'Hare has served less that half of a 40-year sentence, handed down in 1988 for the kidnapping of Dublin dentist Mr John O'Grady. He was transferred from Portlaoise Prison to Castlerea in 2002.

He was housed in an area of the prison called the Grove. This is a small development of seven houses inside the prison walls but separate from the main building.

O'Hare triggered a major manhunt when his gang kidnapped Mr O'Grady in Cabinteely, Co Dublin, in October 1987, holding him in a basement in Parkgate Street, Dublin.

When a ransom demand for Mr O'Grady, a son-in-law of millionaire businessman Dr Austin Darragh, was not met, O'Hare chopped the tops off two of Mr O'Grady's fingers and left them along with a photo of the stumps in a cathedral.

After three weeks on the run, he was arrested during a shoot-out in which he was injured and a companion was killed.

Lawyers for O'Hare argued in the High Court in 2000 that he qualifies for release under the terms of the Belfast Agreement as he was a member of the INLA at the time of his arrest.

O'Hare claimed he was the operating commander of the INLA wing in Portlaoise prison. He said the group was on "a recognised ceasefire" he said, adding that he was in "total support" of the Belfast Agreement.

He was granted "qualified prisoner" status by the then minister for justice John O'Donoghue in November 2000.

Three of O'Hare's accomplices, Mr Edward Hogan, Mr Fergal Toal and Mr Anthony McNeill, have already been released.