DPP urged to appeal sentences on McCabe killers

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) should "appeal the leniency" of sentences handed down to the killers of Jerry McCabe, the Garda Representative Association said yesterday.

The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, has agreed to meet the GRA next Wednesday, one of the demands the GRA issued after its central executive committee discussed the matter in Dublin yesterday morning. The association said in a statement that it recognised the independence of the DPP but exhorted him to lodge an appeal.

Executive members from all the Garda divisions told the meeting that gardai were disillusioned and "hurt" by the case. "The anger and hostility of the force is gaining unprecedented momentum."

The GRA also called on the Government to make "an unequivocal and clear statement with the full support of Cabinet" that early release under the Belfast Agreement would not apply to the killers of Det Garda McCabe.

A senior source said despite public statements from Mr O'Donoghue and Mr Ahern they were "not happy that the situation relating to early release has been fully clarified".

The Minister for Justice or the Taoiseach should "get up and stitch a commitment into the record of the Dail", the source said. The GRA also wants opposition politicians to endorse that position so, "it cannot be misconstrued in the future that this was a decision of Government and is not binding on others".

The DPP would have up until March 4th to lodge an appeal, under the law covering appeals against leniency. The GRA emphasised the appeal should be especially targeted at the sentences of Kevin Walsh and Pearse McCauley, who each received 14 years. Two other men, Jeremiah Sheehy and Michael O'Neill, were sentenced to 12 and 11 years respectively.

The DPP has never appealed a sentence handed down by the Special Criminal Court. It is also open to the defendants to appeal the sentence within 21 days.

The GRA said it also wanted legislation specifying that a member of a gang that set out to "commit serious crime" leading to the murder of a member of the security forces would be liable to a capital murder charge. A security source said this already existed in law, citing the Paul Ward case where Ward was convicted of the murder of Veronica Guerin although he did not pull the trigger.