Garda killer McAuley to be sentenced for wife ordeal

REPUBLICAN Pearse McAuley – who was jailed for the murder of Garda Jerry McCabe – is due to be sentenced today after threatening his wife last Christmas Eve.

McAuley pleaded guilty to falsely imprisoning his estranged wife, former Sinn Féin Councillor Pauline Tully McAuley, and with the intention of causing serious harm to her on the same occasion.

The IRA killer, who spent ten years behind bars for the murder of the garda, also pleaded guilty to threatening to kill her brother Tommy during the same incident.

Sinn Féin stood by McAuley and three other IRA killers after the 1996 killing of Detective Garda McCabe during an armed robbery.

McAuley was jailed for 14 years but released in 2009 after serving ten. The party claimed he should have been released under the Good Friday Agreement and had fought for his early release despite government opposition.

McAuley had met Ms Tully when she visited him in jail.

They married in 2003 as he was serving his sentence. They have two children.

He shot his way out of Brixton Prison in London in 1991 and fled to the Republic.

After his release for the McCabe killing, the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service said it would not seek his extradition for the escape. Mother of two Ms Tully McAuley, a secondary school teacher at Cavan Vocational School, stepped down from her role as a Sinn Féin county councillor in April 2012.

Having served more than ten years as a public representative in Co. Cavan, she made the decision to resign citing work and family commitments.

McAuley, 50, from Castleforde, Ballyconnell, Co. Cavan, was remanded into custody on June 3 for sentencing today.