Danny Butler, the Belfast man involved in a day-long armed siege in New Zealand, was on a flight back to Ireland today after giving himself up to police.
Butler (46), his wife Colette and two sons agreed to leave their home in Auckland at 7.30 p.m. local time yesterday after a day of negotiations with police, who eventually agreed to send him to Dublin. They had been in New Zealand for almost six years.
Butler faces an 18-month sentence for firearms offences in Northern Ireland. It is understood, however, he is likely to remain in the Republic unless the RUC seeks his extradition.
The siege began when police and immigration officials arrived at Butler's house intending to deport him. He threatened them with an axe and warned he would douse the property in petrol and set it ablaze. The west Belfast man has campaigned for five years against being sent back to Northern Ireland, insisting he faces death there at the hands of the IPLO, which accused him of being an RUC informer.
The family eventually called off the siege after giving a television interview and were driven in police cars to Auckland central police station. The family's solicitor, Mr Phil Recordon, was the only man allowed into the house during the negotiations, conducted on Butler's mobile telephone and through their doctor, a priest and immigration officials outside.
Sgt Keith Campbell of Auckland police said: "The family were very, very distressed throughout the whole ordeal and we're relieved it's all over without anybody getting hurt. It took all day but it was a peaceful solution."
It took hours of negotiation to decide the destination of the flight. A spokesman for the Northern Ireland Office confirmed that Dublin had been agreed upon. Butler said later: "What has been negotiated at the minute is that me and my oldest son go to Dublin . . . we've the government's undertaking on that."
He told a radio interviewer that as an alleged informant for the RUC, he now feared for his life if he returned to Northern Ireland. He said he did not believe he would be any safer in the Republic than in Northern Ireland. "At the end of the day if and when my assassins catch up with me, then we'll die with dignity. It's a question of how long we last in Dublin as opposed to anywhere else.,"
Immigration Minister Mr Max Bradford had earlier said Wellington would not let the family stay on humanitarian grounds, calling Butler a fugitive from British justice.