A MAN who strangled his cousin during a visit to Bundoran, Co Donegal, is the first prisoner to be transferred to an English jail under the new convention on prisoners.
Mark Granaghan (34) was moved from Wheatfield Prison in Dublin yesterday, flown to London and taken to Wandsworth Prison where he will serve he remainder of a life term.
Granaghan strangled his 21 year old cousin, Joseph Brown, at a caravan park in Bundoran in 1989. Granaghan travelled between Donegal and London.
The circumstances of the murder remain obscure. Granaghan was already before the courts on petty crime charges. On the morning after the murder, he appeared before the local district court and was sent to Mountjoy Prison.
His cousin's body was found in a caravan later that day. Granaghan admitted the killing and in January, 1990, he was sentenced to life imprisonment during a brief appearance before the Central Criminal Court.
Under the new convention, ratified by the Republic and Britain last year, prisoners can he moved to their state of origin to be nearer their families. A stipulation of the legislation covering the transfers is that the prisoners serve sentences as imposed in the state of origin.
About 50 Irish offenders serving sentences in Britain are expected to seek transfer to Irish prisons. This is likely to place some pressure on the prison system here, as more than 20 of these are long term republican prisoners. However, this will be offset somewhat by prisoners here seeking transfer to England.