RELEASE OF MEN CONVICTED OVER GARDA'S KILLING:THE LAST two Provisional IRA gang members serving prison sentences for shooting dead Det Garda Jerry McCabe have been released from Castlerea Prison, Co Roscommon.
Pearse McCauley (44) and Kevin Walsh (52) had served 10½ years for their role in the June 1996 fatal shooting in Adare, Co Limerick, in which Det Garda Ben O’Sullivan was also wounded.
Following the men’s release yesterday morning, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said that in a public statement some years ago the IRA members convicted of the shooting “had expressed their deep regret and apologised for the ‘hurt and grief we have caused to their families’.”
Mr Adams added: “I deeply regret the great loss and hurt suffered by the McCabe and O’Sullivan families.
“The release of Kevin Walsh and Pearse McCauley comes at the end of their sentences, despite them being qualifying IRA prisoners under the Good Friday agreement.”
The men were jailed briefly in the maximum security Portlaoise Prison before being transferred to Castlerea, where they lived in houses in a relaxed regime rather than among the general prison population in cells.
A bid to have the gang members released early under the Belfast Agreement was rejected by the High Court.
Det Garda McCabe was shot three times as he sat in an unmarked Garda car while providing an armed escort for an SDS van delivering cash for social welfare payments.
Det Gda O’Sullivan, who was in the car with Det Gda McCabe, suffered gunshot and shrapnel wounds to his face, arms, chest and legs. The men’s car was rammed from behind before 14 shots were fired by the gang, who were armed with Kalashnikov rifles.
Four Provisional IRA members, including Strabane man McCauley and Limerick man Walsh, were convicted of the attack.
McCauley and Walsh were sentenced to 14 years in 1999 for manslaughter. With remission they were due to serve 10½ years, which was completed yesterday.
Another gang member, Jeremiah Sheehy, was released in 2008, while Michael O’Neill, who was also convicted of manslaughter, left prison in 2007. Two other men suspected of involvement in the killing are still on the run.
A statement released recently by Gda McCabe’s widow Ann and their five children said the completion of the sentences “brought closure and consolation that the rule of law at least has been served”.
Sinn Féin’s Martin Ferris TD, who collected McCauley and Walsh from prison on their release yesterday, welcomed an announcement by the UK authorities that extradition proceedings against a number of republicans, including McCauley, have been discontinued.
“This will be a relief to the men and their families,” he said in a statement. He did not speak to the media gathered outside Castlerea Prison yesterday.
A statement from Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it no longer planned to pursue the prosecution of four republicans. It said the passage of time, availability or otherwise of key evidence exhibits and statements made by politicians in recent years about on-the-run terrorists meant securing prosecutions was unlikely.
McCauley was wanted on explosives and conspiracy to murder charges. He escaped from London’s Brixton Prison in July 1991 while awaiting trial. Another Brixton escapee, Nessan Quinlivan is also among the four no longer being pursued by the CPS.
Quinlivan, from Limerick, was wanted on a variety of charges including explosives and conspiracy to murder.
The other two men named in the CPS statement are Andrew Martin and Anthony Duncan. Martin, a Dubliner in his 40s, and Duncan, a 39-year-old Dubliner, were also wanted on explosives charges. All alleged crimes occurred in the UK in the 1980s and 1990s.
Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson described the CPS decision as “incredible”. He said they were now enjoying the policies enacted by the former and current Ulster Unionist Party leaders. The Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister said the decision was “nothing short of outrageous”.