Man convicted of murder of Mountbatten in 1979 is freed

The man convicted of the murder of Lord Mountbatten in 1979 was released late last night under the terms of the Belfast Agreement.

Thomas McMahon (50) has been on daily parole from the Training Unit attached to Mountjoy prison since January 1996. Queen Elizabeth was informed of the release "at some point today" a spokeswoman for Buckingham Palace said last night. Lord Mountbatten was the Queen's second cousin and an uncle of Prince Philip. The spokeswoman said it would not be appropriate for the Palace to comment on the matter. "All we would say is this is a matter for the Irish government. And the Queen has been informed."

McMahon walked out of the Training Unit at 9.40 p.m. last night. He was driven away by a woman in a Monaghan-registered car. He refused to comment on his release.

The murder of Lord Louis Mountbatten and three other people took place on the August bank holiday weekend in 1979. The IRA claimed responsibility for detonating the 50lb bomb on the Mountbatten boat, the Shadow V, off Mullaghmore harbour, Co Sligo.

A Government source said the authorities had been conscious of the "great sensitivity" of his case and the timing of the release had been discussed many times. Gardai described McMahon as the bomb-maker at his trial in the Special Criminal Court in November 1979. He was the only man convicted of the murder. He was arrested in a car before the bomb exploded. The driver of the car was acquitted. Lord Mountbatten's grandson, Nicholas Knatchbull, was one of two 15 year-old boys killed in the bombing. The boy's 82-year-old grandmother, Lady Brabourne, died later in hospital. The second boy, Paul Maxwell from Enniskillen, had been working on the boat as a summer job. Nicholas's twin brother, Timothy, and his parents survived the attack.

McMahon, a father of two from Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, served the first 13 years of his sentence in Portlaoise Prison. In 1985 he was among 11 IRA prisoners who used guns, explosives and fake prison officer uniforms in an unsuccessful escape attempt.

Three years later he fired a single shot from a Browning pistol smuggled into a holding cell in the Four Courts building where he was due to attend a High Court hearing.

He was awarded £4,000 damages at that hearing for assault by a prison officer. He was transferred to Arbour Hill prison in Dublin in June 1992, and was believed to have signed a declaration dissociating himself from the IRA. In January 1993 he was transferred to the Mountjoy Training Unit and in the following year he trained as a carpenter in the workshop of PACE, the agency for rehabilitation of prisoners.

McMahon's release was considered the week before last by the three-person Prisoner Commission. The case had been referred to them by the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, and they recommended his release to the Minister more than a week ago. The Commission, which last week sanctioned the release of six IRA prisoners, is not expected to recommend any further releases until next month.

Under the terms of the release there will be a general requirement on McMahon to be "of good behaviour".

It is believed that he has a job to go to in the Border area as a carpenter, the trade ascribed to him 19 years ago in the Special Criminal Court.