Michael McAleavey, the former Irish soldier who murdered three of his colleagues in the Lebanon, was this week released from Maghaberry prison in Co Antrim, the Northern Ireland Prison Service has confirmed.
McAleavey was freed on Monday after serving 27 years and one month of his life sentence. One of his release conditions is that he live locally in his native city of Belfast.
McAleavey was 21 in October 1982 when he opened fire on his colleagues while on peacekeeping duties in the Lebanon. He murdered Cpl Gregory Morrow, Private Thomas Murphy and Private Peter Burke, initially claiming they were shot by Lebanese gunmen.
Relatives of two of the victims were recently advised of McAleavey’s impending release. One of the families was not contactable, it is understood.
McAleavey claimed that he snapped while suffering from a combination of dehydration and heat exhaustion.
He spent time in various prisons in the South before being repatriated on humanitarian grounds to Maghaberry in October 2007 so that the west Belfast man could be nearer his family.
In 2008 the North’s then lord chief justice Sir Brian Kerr ruled that he must serve a minimum prison term, or tariff, of 27 years. He passed that tariff by a month on Monday when he was released on licence under the authority of the North’s probation board.
Sources said that McAleavey was a “model” prisoner. He was granted short-term releases on several occasions over the past couple of years to test if he could re-adapt into the community.
The decision to release him was taken by the parole commissioners. Unlike in the South where the Minister of Justice has the final say over such releases, their rulings are binding on the North’s prison service.