Belfast prison escaper Paul "Dingus" Magee was yesterday freed on bail by the High Court and is to have an Article 40 inquiry into the legality of his detention. Magee (51) is also seeking to bring judicial review proceedings against the State and they will be raised again at a later date.
He was transferred in 1998, under the Convention for the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, from a British prison to Portlaoise, and had been on temporary release from Portlaoise prison since shortly before Christmas.
Mr Justice O Caoimh yesterday adjourned the case until next Monday week when the question of a date for a full hearing will be considered.
In the Supreme Court earlier yesterday, Mr Diarmaid McGuinness SC, for the State, said the Attorney General had acted on foot of a warrant of the Supreme Court by which he was required to bring Magee before the court.
The Supreme Court judges asked Mr McGuinness what the State was asking the court to do. Counsel asked them to consider a chronology of events in the case. Mr Justice Barron said that was no answer. Mr McGuinness said the issues raised in the High Court by Dr Michael Forde SC, for Magee, had been very substantial.
After further exchanges, the Supreme Court sent the matter back to the High Court where solicitor Mr Michael Farrell, for Magee, said two orders were made by Dublin District Court in October 1989 for Magee's extradition to the North to serve two life sentences imposed in Belfast. He was convicted and sentenced in June, 1981, but had escaped from custody two days previously.
Magee was arrested in the Republic in 1982 and served a sentence for escaping from custody in the North. On his release in 1989, the District Court ordered his extradition to the North to serve the sentences.
He appealed to the High Court and later the Supreme Court. His appeals were dismissed in 1991.
Magee was on bail and was not present for the Supreme Court decision and not subsequently made amenable by the gardai.
Mr Farrell said Magee was arrested in England, in 1992, in connection with other offences but was immediately committed to prison to serve the two life sentences in respect of which his extradition had been ordered by the District Court in 1989.
He was subsequently convicted of the murder of a police officer and other offences in the UK and received a further life sentence. He was transferred to Portlaoise jail in May, 1998.
Dr Michael Forde SC, for Magee, said he was contending that Magee's present detention was unlawful. The District Court warrant was now deemed to have expired or to have been waived by the UK and Irish authorities.
He could have been held in England but instead the authorities there sent him back.
When he was being sentenced in England, he had raised the fact of his Northern Ireland convictions and that he had a sentence hanging over him there.
Counsel added that while Magee was on temporary release here, he had gone to Northern Ireland on several occasions.
He had done so with the knowledge of the authorities here and presumably of the Northern authorities.
Under District Court rules, its warrants must have lapsed within six months of the Supreme Court orders unless there had been an application to extend them.
Dr Forde also submitted that there had been a profound change of circumstances since the District Court orders had been made. There had been the Belfast Agreement and also the Transfer of Prisoners legislation.
Mr McGuinness said the State accepted the issues raised were fair and arguable. If the judge was in agreement, he could direct an Article 40 inquiry. If the judge was minded to direct an inquiry, there would be consent to terms for bail. Magee had been on temporary release and had been abiding by its terms.