Irish cop killer walks out of low security jail and goes on the run

Cross border manhunt now in operation in search for ‘serial criminal’

Larger Text

Print

E-mail

3 Comments

Garda (police) patrol car

Photo by Google Images

Tweet

A massive manhunt is underway on both sides of the Irish border after a police killer escaped from prison.

Donegal man Martin McDermott is on the run after he absconded from a low security facility in County Cavan.

The 26-year-old is serving a seven year sentence for the manslaughter of officer Gary McLoughlin, who died after his patrol car was rammed.

McDermott has 91 previous convictions and Irish police say he has already fled across the border to Northern Ireland.

Officers who served with their dead colleague are furious that McDermott was probably able to walk out of the facility.

One told the Irish independent: “I am so angry I can hardly begin to speak. This is not just the fact Garda (police officer) McLoughlin died.

“It is the fact that McDermott killed anyone at all and is sent to this holiday camp to serve his sentence. McDermott is a serial criminal who will offend again.”

An investigation is to be carried out into the escape. The paper reports that questions will be asked over why a serial offender serving a manslaughter sentence was being held in an open prison.
McDermott was just eight months into his sentence.

The Irish Prison Service confirmed that ‘an inmate had absconded and that gardai (police) had been notified’.

“We will find McDermott,” a police spokesman said. “We will issue a European arrest warrant and he will be caught and he will serve every single day of his sentence.”

Print

E-mail

Tweet