Maze escaper ruling tomorrow

The application by Maze prison escapee Brendan McFarlane to stop his trial before the Special Criminal Court on charges arising…

The application by Maze prison escapee Brendan McFarlane to stop his trial before the Special Criminal Court on charges arising from the kidnapping of supermarket executive Mr Don Tidey will be ruled on by Mr Justice Ó Caoimh in the High Court tomorrow.

Mr Tidey's kidnapping 20 years ago led to a nationwide search which ended with a shoot-out between kidnappers, gardaí and the Army at Derrada Wood, near Ballinamore, Co Leitrim, in December 1983, during which a garda recruit and a soldier were killed.

McFarlane, with a Belfast address, claims his right to a fair trial has been prejudiced by the delay in prosecuting him and also through the loss of a number of items on which, gardaí claim, his fingerprints were found.

He is facing trial on charges alleging that between November 15th, 1983, and December 16th, 1983, he was in possession of a firearm at Derrada Wood with intent to endanger life and for an unlawful purpose. He is also charged with the false imprisonment of Mr Tidey.

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McFarlane, while serving a life sentence arising from the bombing of a bar on Belfast's Shankill road in the 1970s in which five people died, escaped from the Maze prison in 1983 with 37 others. He was subsequently arrested in the Netherlands in 1986, from where he was extradited to Northern Ireland. He was jailed in the North and from 1993 to 1998, as part of a pre-release programme, was released twice a year for periods of one week on parole.

He was arrested on January 5th, 1998, while travelling on a bus between Dublin and Belfast. He is seeking injunctions restraining the DPP from taking any steps to further prosecute him.