Minister urged to apologise in person to victim’s family after killer absconds

Northern Ireland’s justice minister has been urged to apologise in person to the family of the man whose murderer was at large for almost nine months.

James Meehan failed to return to Magilligan Prison in Co Londonderry, after being on day release on December 9 2024.

He was arrested by police in the Republic of Ireland earlier this month.

Justice Minister Naomi Long instructed a senior official to carry out a review into the pre-release testing system for prisoners after the incident.

“Pre-release testing is absolutely critical in terms of ensuring that when people are released into the community, they’re able to be released into the community safely,” she said.

“I have set out what I intend to do as minister, and I will inform the House once that review is complete.”

UUP MLA Doug Beattie urged Ms Long to meet the family of father-of-four Londonderry man Jim McFadden, of whose murder Meehan was convicted in 2009.

“Jim McFadden’s family have been treated absolutely appallingly, and have been kept in the dark for the last 10 months now about the murderer of their dad, James Meehan,” he said.

“Can I ask the minister, given the fiasco around this, would it not be fair for her to meet with the family, listen to their anguish, their story, and actually apologise to them in person for the absolutely chaotic way that we have dealt with this.”

Ms Long said she did not accept the characterisation of the situation, but conceded that by being unlawfully at large, Meehan caused further distress and anguish to the McFadden family.

“I have apologised publicly to the McFadden family for how this has been handled, I have offered a meeting with the McFadden family and I am more than happy to meet with them and listen directly, as I am with all victims,” she said,

“A review was undertaken in Magilligan immediately following James Meehan’s absconding, and additional safeguards have been implemented as a result, and the lessons learned from that short-term review have also been shared with our other establishments.

“It is an important part of rehabilitation and resettlement back into the community, and it is worth remembering that there are around 4,000 prisoners who leave our system each year, and of those we are dealing with a tiny few who do not pass their pre-testing regime in order to be successfully rehabilitated.

“That does not diminish, however, the impact that this has on individual families.”