Soldier killer ‘Whacker’ extradited to the North
Duffy will serve life sentence
Declan Duffy DECLAN “Whacker” Duffy will be extradited to the North to continue serving his life sentence for killing a soldier, a court ruled yesterday.
The former INLA terrorist will be handed over to police as soon as he finishes his six-year sentence here.
The 44-year old was jailed for the murder of British Army sergeant Michael Newman in Derby in 1992 when he was released on licence by a Northern Irish parole board in March 2013.
But Duffy was arrested by gardai on December 5, 2015, and was last year jailed by the Special Criminal Court for six years for falsely imprisoning Martin Byrne in Dublin on June 9, 2015.
In June the following year the Under Secretary of State for Northern Ireland revoked Duffy’s licence and recalled him to prison and a European Arrest Warrant was issued.
His lawyers had opposed their client’s surrender on grounds his return to prison in the North amounted to “double punishment”.
Duffey’s solicitor Anthony Hanrahan submitted to the High Court his client had already served “what was deemed by the Sentence Review Commissioner to be an appropriate sentence.”
He said it was an “unusual case” as the offending behaviour was carried out in a separate jurisdiction in which Duffy would be serving his six-year sentence in full before having to return to the North to once again begin his life sentence.
However, Justice Aileen Donnelly ordered Duffy’s extradition yesterday.
She postponed surrender pending the completion of the terrorist’s current six-year prison sentence here for false imprisonment and assault.
Counsel for the Justice Minister Ronan Kennedy said Duffy’s arrest here meant he had breached the conditions of his licence not to be a danger to the public.