Northern Ireland's minister with responsibility for prisons, Paul Goggins, has pledged to move quickly to change the current automatic 50 per cent prison remission rates following a public outcry over the impending release of a convicted rapist.
Eamon Foley from Castlederg, Co Tyrone, is due to be released in the coming weeks after serving eight years of a 16-year sentence for the rape of 91-year-old Mary Anne McLaughlin. She died in January 1999 just four weeks after she was assaulted. While an assessment panel judged Foley as a high-risk offender under current law he must be released after serving half of his sentence.
Police have been granted an interim order under which, when released, Foley can only live at an approved address, can only use public transport and can have no access to children or vulnerable adults. The order will be renewed in December. Ms McLaughlin's niece Jean McCafferty complained yesterday about the current legislation and his release. "That's not justice for my family, that's not justice for us as a family," she said.
Politicians also weighed in with demands for immediate changes to the law. Sinn Féin MP for West Tyrone Pat Doherty said local people are outraged at the news that a convicted rapist "could be released back into the local community within weeks despite the assessment that he poses a serious risk".
Responsibility for security still rests with British direct rule ministers. Mr Doherty said the current law demonstrated the need to devolve policing and justice powers to the Northern Executive and Assembly. "I think that many, many people will be demanding that we have local ministers in charge of responding to what our people are saying to us and the issues affecting our community rather than semi-detached British ministers," he said. The DUP Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson said that despite DNA evidence showing the odds of Foley being innocent being one in a billion, he still denied the crime.
"Experts have stated that he would be considered a high-risk individual if released. It is wrong that he should have been released so early and the DUP will be taking this matter up with the Northern Ireland Office at the earliest opportunity," he added.
