Brighton bomber walks out of prison
From NEWS LETTER June 23rd, 1999
Free just 14 years after bid to kill the Government BRIGHTON bomber Patrick
Magee walked free from the Maze Prison yesterday. He was freed under the
Good Friday Agreement early release scheme after serving 14 years - despite
a judge's recommendation he serve a minimum of 35 years. Magee, who received
eight life sentences for plotting to assassinate former Conservative prime
minister Margaret Thatcher and her entire Cabinet at the Grand Hotel, Brighton,
on October 12 1984, made no comment as he left the jail. He was greeted
by six supporters, headed by veteran republican Martin Meehan, who embraced
him before bundling Magee into a car which sped off from the jail at speed.
Minutes before, Magee's belongings, packed into six cardboard boxes, were
stacked in the back of the car. As he waited for Magee to be released, Mr
Meehan told PA News: "I am here as a republican and personal friend of Patrick Magee to welcome him home." He condemned Conservative anger at Magee's release,
commenting: "I think it is hypocritical because British soldiers have been released after a very short time on life sentence. And not one RUC man has been prosecuted for shoot-to-kill or collusion." "Patrick Magee has served the equivalent of a 14-year sentence - that is a life sentence in any standard of the imagination." Commenting on Magee's plans for the future, Mr Meehan
added: "He is a very quiet and very inoffensive person and I am sure he will want to settle back into life and use his influence in the political struggle that the republican movement is involved in at the moment, and that is to implement the Good Friday Agreement." Magee was the 277th prisoner
to be freed early under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. In all,
around 500 inmates convicted of terrorist crimes committed before the signing
of the Agreement are due to be released by the end of July next year. Tory
shadow Northern Ireland secretary Andrew MacKay yesterday condemned both
the release of Magee and the continuation of the early freeing of terrorist
prisoners. He said: "Our criticism of the government and the Prime Minister is that he is not implementing the Agreement in full. It is being partially implemented." "It is being implemented to the extent that prisoners are being released early; it is not being implemented by an end to violence and a start to decommissioning of illegally held weapons." Magee was transferred
from an English prison to the Maze in September 1994, only hours after the
start of the first IRA ceasefire. He used his time in prison to study for
a PhD in Troubles' Fiction. In his belongings taken out of the jail today
were numerous box files. In August 1997 Magee married American Barbara Byer,
after striking up a relationship with the novelist, some 15 years his junior
and from Connecticut, via correspondence. It was his second marriage. Trial
judge Mr Justice Boreham branded Magee "a man of exceptional cruelty and inhumanity" who enjoyed terrorist activities. "You intended to wipe out a large part of the government and you nearly did," he told the bomber.
Margaret Thatcher, who was in the hotel working on her speech at the time
of the bombing, escaped alive, but Magee's bomb killed five and injured
34 others. Within minutes of Magee walking free from The Maze, former Home
Secretary Michael Howard stepped up his protest at the decision to grant
him early release. He said: "His release is a disgrace. I recognise that it is possible to argue that the release of terrorist prisoners was an integral part of the Good Friday Agreement which is designed to bring peace to Ireland." "Perhaps if this agreement was being observed on all sides there would be a case for the release of Magee, however sickmaking that would be." "But the Good Friday Agreement is not being observed on all sides. The paramilitaries resolutely refuse to surrender their guns or their bombs. If they genuinely intended to set aside violence, what conceivable reason could there be for them to continue to have access to these weapons?" "Until these weapons are surrendered no more terrorist prisoners should be released. It is an outrage that they are being set free." Mr Howard also pointed out that the bombing
of the Grand Hotel was only one of the many atrocities that Magee planned.
"He was also involved in the so-called seaside bombing plot which was targeted, among other towns, at Folkestone (Kent) in my constituency." Spokesmen for both Baroness Thatcher and Lord Tebbit - who was seriously injured in the blast - indicated that neither would be commenting on the release of Magee.
Northern Ireland First Minister David Trimble said the move only served
to highlight the fact that prisoner early releases were continuing while
paramilitary disarmament was not taking place. |
