A murderer who has been returned to prison for the second time should now face a criminal charge for absconding, TUV leader and barrister Jim Allister has said.
Thomas McCabe, who was arrested in the Republic of Ireland in August had been unlawfully at large since the previous year after going on the run for a second time.
The 60-year-old, who has now been extradited back to Northern Ireland, had been serving a life sentence for killing a teenager in London in 1990.
McCabe had failed to return to prison while on temporary day release from Maghaberry on August 23, 2023, but was arrested by gardaí a year later and returned to prison in Northern Ireland on Tuesday.
A spokesperson from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said the force will continue to “work closely with authorities in the Republic of Ireland to return fugitives to Northern Ireland”.
“Our message is clear to anyone who has left Northern Ireland to avoid the consequences of their actions: we will use all powers available to have you arrested and returned to Northern Ireland.”
McCabe was previously on the run for more than two years before being arrested by gardaí in 2020.
He had last absconded in 2018, when it took two years to recapture him.
At that time he was out on licence, but it was revoked for breaches of terms.
TUV leader and barrister Jim Allister said McCabe should now face a criminal charge for absconding.
“Escaping from lawful custody – or not keeping to his parole terms if he’s on parole – are criminal offences in themselves, so he should be dealt with for those which would add to his incarceration,” said Mr Allister.
“Secondly, it should surely cause any future parole board to be disinclined to give him parole.”
Jim Allister MP
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McCabe, originally from Northern Ireland, was convicted of murdering Richard Hunt, the 18-year-old cousin of McCabe’s 19-year-old girlfriend in 1990.
McCabe, who was 26 at the time and drunk, did not know who the victim was.
When he entered his girlfriend’s flat and found the 18-year-old there he assumed his girlfriend was cheating with him.
A pathologist found McCabe hit the teenager at least eight times in the face and head with a two-foot-long metal scaffolding pole.
One year before the murder, McCabe had been released from a 15-month sentence for robbing a vagrant.
He was given a life sentence for the murder and was told to serve a minimum of 11 years in jail.
He was kept in jail past his minimum term because he was judged to be a danger to the public, and was then let out on licence sometime after 2007.
Going by court documents and information from the Department of Justice, he has been unlawfully at large a minimum of seven times since 1990, according to the News Letter.
In 2020, during one of the periods he was missing, the Department of Justice had mistakenly taken him off the online list of wanted people and was only reinstated after the News Letter pointed it out to them.
Asked last year by the News Letter why he keeps getting let out when he absconds, the Department of Justice said at the time: “Prisoners approaching the end of their sentence will be tested prior to release back into the community.
“Those individuals will have fully engaged in a number of previous tests, which challenge and support them to make positive change in their lives.
“After being fully assessed, they begin a graduated release programme into the community, firstly under supervision then progressing to short time bounded periods of unaccompanied release where they work in the community.
“Preparing people for release is a vital part of rehabilitation as it reduces their risk of re-offending which helps to make the community safer. Those participating in this release programme are less likely to re-offend.
“Like any test, unfortunately, failure is part of the process.”