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Escapee
Garda killer jailed again in Derry after prison escape
Martin McDermott, who was serving a seven-year sentence for the manslaughter of a garda, escaped from a low-security jail earlier this month.
A MAN WHO escaped from a low security prison in Cavan earlier this month has been jailed again in Derry this morning.
Martin McDermott, 26, originally of Raphoe, Co Donegal, escaped from a low-security prison in Blacklion, Cavan, on 15 March. He was serving a seven-year sentence for the manslaughter of Garda Gary McLoughlin in Donegal in 2009.
McDermott was sentenced last summer for the part he played in the Garda’s death. He had led police on a 30km high-speed chase before crashing into McLoughlin’s patrol car on 13 December 2009.
This morning, McDermott pleaded guilty to three charges of assaulting police officers, one charge of resisting arrest and causing criminal damage to a set of handcuffs, the BBC reports.
After McDermott’s escape, the Garda Representative Association questioned why an offender who had been convicted of killing a garda was being housed in a low-security facility.
The GRA has called for the introduction of higher penalties for killing a garda in order to better protect gardaí while on duty, and wants Minister Alan Shatter to launch a full inquiry into why McDermott was being held at the Co Cavan facility.
“We are asking the minister to examine who made the decision to transfer this newly convicted prisoner to a low security prison,” said GRA president Damien McCarthy. ”And how does this act as a deterrent to others?”
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