Call to charge runaway killer Thomas McCabe after he is returned to Northern Ireland following a year on the loose in the Republic of Ireland

Thomas McCabe was yesterday extradited to Northern Ireland from the Republic of Ireland, where he had been detained since August.

He had gone on-the-run in summer 2023 while on temporary day release from Maghaberry.

But that was at least the seventh time McCabe had been "unlawfully at large" since being jailed for murder.

He had last absconded in 2018, when it took two years to recapture him (on that occasion too he fled to the Republic).

At that time he was out on licence, but it was revoked for breaches of terms.

Asked if he would now be charged with absconding, the PSNI said simply: "McCabe has been returned to prison."

And the PPS told the News Letter it is down to police to send them a file on it before they can proceed, and that “there is nothing coming up on our system indicating that we have received a file in relation to this”.

McCabe, from Newry, was convicted in 1990 of murdering Richard Hunt, the 18-year-old cousin of McCabe's 19-year-old girlfriend.

McCabe was 26 at the time, and did not know who the victim was.

McCabe, drunk, had entered his girlfriend's flat, found the 18-year-old there, and assumed his girlfriend was cheating on him.

A pathologist found McCabe hit the teenager at least eight times in the face and head with a two-foot-long metal scaffolding pole.

An account of the murder scene from McCabe's girlfriend said that McCabe was smiling and laughing after the killing, before threatening her and her baby with being “blown away” if she spoke to police.

One year before the murder, McCabe had been released from a 15-month sentence for robbing a vagrant.

He was given a life sentence for the murder (meaning he can be recalled to jail at any time for breaching terms of his licence or commiting more crimes), and was told to serve a minimum of 11 years in jail.

He was kept in jail past his minimum term though because he was judged to be a danger to the public, and was then let out on licence some time after 2007.

In 2020, during one of the periods he was missing, the Department of Justice had mistakenly taken him off the online list of wanted people.

It reinstated him three days after the News Letter pointed it out to them.

A statement last night from the NI Prison Service said: “The Prison Service can confirm Thomas McCabe has been returned to Maghaberry Prison.

“On the wider issue of pre-release testing, this is a vital part of rehabilitation and resettlement and includes temporary periods of release.

"After being fully risk assessed, prisoners begin graduated release into the community, firstly under supervision then progressing to short periods of unaccompanied release where they work in the community.

"The reality is that some will fail this test and will be returned to prison, while others will progress back into the community.”