Louth born murderer asks for delay in extradition to Northern Ireland

A convicted murderer who is alleged to have gone on the run from prison in Northern Ireland for the second time in three years has asked a judge to delay surrendering him back to the North so that authorities can consider transferring his sentence to the Republic.

A search was launched for James Meehan (56) after he failed to return to Magilligan prison in Derry while on day release in December 2024. He was arrested by gardai in August on foot of extradition warrants issued under the Trade and Co-operation Agreement.

Meehan, who previously had addresses in Derry City and Headfort Grove, Kells, Co Meath, was sentenced in 2009 to life imprisonment – with a minimum of 14 years to be served - for the murder of Derry man Jim McFadden in May 2007.

The High Court previously heard that Meehan was born in Co Louth and raised in neighbouring Co Meath.

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In addition to the warrant for Meehan to return to the North to serve his murder sentence, a second warrant was issued for him to be prosecuted in Northern Ireland for being unlawfully at large. A conviction under the Northern Irish legislation could carry a prison sentence of up to two years.

Counsel for the prosecution, Leanora Frawley BL, told the court today that Meehan was granted temporary unaccompanied leave from prison to meet family members on December 9 2024, but he never returned.

Ms Frawley said that this was not Meehan’s “first rodeo” when it comes to extradition matters and that a similar case concerning Meehan was before the courts around a year ago.

Defence counsel for Meehan, Brian Storan BL, said that his actions are a “measure of how he wants to be with his family in the State”.

He said that Meehan had applied to have his life sentence transferred from the North to the South in 2017 and that he would be a perfect candidate for it.

He asked for the judge to consider putting a stay on the surrender in order for Meehan’s application for transfer to be “focused on” and given real consideration by the authorities.

Mr Justice Paul McDermott said that someone moving “on their own bat” south of the border and taking it on themselves to say “here I am, I want to transfer” is not the way the process is envisaged to work.

Mr Storan said that his client is “clearly still trusted with temporary release” by both the authorities of the Irish state and Northern Ireland and highlighted that he was granted bail immediately without complaint from the DPP.

He said that he was not asking the judge to refuse the surrender of his client, but to put a stay on the order “in the interest of justice”.

Mr Justice McDermott said that he would not make a decision on the matter, but adjourned proceedings until November 14 in order for the defence team to present evidence of correspondence between Meehan and the Northern Irish authorities in relation to his application to transfer his sentence.

Meehan was previously extradited to Northern Ireland less than two years ago, after he was described by the Prison Service there as being “unlawfully at large”.

He had argued that the punitive part of his sentence had been served and that he had actually been released from prison “on licence” when he came to live here in 2022.

However in December 2023, the High Court found there was "clear evidence" that the terms of Meehan's release from prison had been breached and ordered his surrender to Northern Ireland.