Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has said “all necessary steps” will be taken to ensure that mistakes such as the escape of a convicted Garda killer two weeks ago do not happen again.
The Minister was responding to a report by the Irish Prison Service last night on the circumstances surrounding the transfer to, and escape from, Loughan House of prisoner Martin McDermott.
McDermott (26) from Raphoe, Co Donegal, escaped from the Co Cavan prison on March 15th. He was arrested the next day at a friend’s house in Derry. He had been convicted of killing Garda Gary McLoughlin after striking the patrol car in which he was sitting in a speeding vehicle in December 2009. Sentenced in July 2011, he was jailed for eight years for the manslaughter of Garda McLoughlin.
Last night, Mr Shatter said having considered the report, “it was impossible to avoid the conclusion” that the transfer of McDermott to the open prison was wrong. He said “sufficient consideration was not given to the gravity of the heinous offence” committed as well as to other criteria, and he had been assured by the director general of the Irish Prison Service that steps were being taken to prevent such a recurrence.