THE triple killer discovered living in Cork consented to his extradition to Britain yesterday after telling a court he was confident of being released from detention there.
Mr Alan Patrick Reeve (49) waived his right of appeal and signed his consent to extradition warrants from British police. He is expected to be returned within 48 hours.
Mr Reeve, in a statement, told Dublin District Court that he had "felt constrained to absent himself without leave" from Broadmoor Prison, where he had served 17 years as a patient for two unlawful killings.
However, he said that, because of changes in the law in England and his own good behaviour, he felt assured he, would be released from psychiatric detention.
Mr Reeve was sent to, Broadmoor in 1964 as a teenager for killing a friend and three years later confessed to the manslaughter of a fellow inmate.
He escaped from Broadmoor after three appeals for his release had been rejected. A year later he was convicted in Holland of the manslaughter of a policeman and served 10 years in jail.
Mr Reeve's solicitor said that his client was confident of release because of changes in the British Mental Health Act and his own good behaviour for more than two years.
Mr Reeve stood calmly in the dock during the hearing yesterday afternoon. Also present in court was his fiancee, Ms Anne Murphy, of Cathedral Street, Gurranabraher, Cork, who was in tears as he was led to the cells.
Judge Michael O'Reilly, who ordered that the prisoner receive prompt medical attention for a heart condition, ordered the extradition to Thames Valley Police in Bracknell, Berkshire.
In the statement read out in court Mr Reeve said: "I have chosen to return to England voluntarily because, owing to my consistent record of mental stability for many years and my consistent good behaviour over a long period, I am confident that my release from enforced detention in a psychiatric institution can be assured in that country, the law having changed since I felt constrained to absent myself without leave from Broadmoor."