Justice spokesperson, Doug Beattie MC MLA, said, “The handling of the James Meehan case is a serious failure by the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Justice Minister. I have recently raised the issue that the Criminal Justice Board has no shared vision and no strategic priorities which means each department are not pulling together. This failure can be viewed in no starker terms that the failing around James Meehan, the murderer at large from HMP Maghaberry.

“Having been given the virtual green light to abscond for a third time it has taken the Justice Minister 9 months to decide that the prisoner pre-release criteria need to be reviewed. Yet, letters that I have seen from the DoJ run Probation Board Northern Ireland (PBNI) Victims Information Unit to the victim’s family in May 2024 clearly states that James Meehan is not to be released and was to remain in custody and that this would be reviewed in 12 months. That was just 6 months before he was let out on day release by the Prison Service to abscond to the Irish Republic.

“Maybe a human error and that can happen, yet at the end of August the PBNI again wrote to the family to say that the Parole Commissioners for Northern Ireland had recommended that Meehan should not be release and that his case would be reviewed in 10 months. That was just 2 months before the Prison Service allowed him out on day release.

“When the Justice Minister was questioned about the Meehan case, she said she would like to apologise, I called for her to do so directly to the family. She has yet to reach out to any of the family of Jim McFadden who was murdered by Meehan. The family have still not been informed as to how the extradition hearing went regarding Meehan. Literally nobody has reaching out to the family which brings into question the Victims Charter and the Victims and Witnesses Strategy run by the Department. I believe the family of Jim McFadden have been treated appallingly, that our Criminal Justice system is not joined up, not coherent and pulling in different directions.

These are serious failings, and the Minister must take responsibility for them. Again, I am calling on the Minister to meet the family without delay to apologise for her departments failures and to further consider her position by simply asking if she is delivering a credible justice system for the people of Northern Ireland.”