Hyde Park suspect can be extradited

THE prime suspect in the IRA’s Hyde Park bombing can be extradited to Northern Ireland over the murder of two soldiers, a judge has ruled.

John Downey, 67, had faced trial at the Old Bailey over the 1982 atrocity in which four Royal Household Cavalrymen died but the case collapsed in 2013 after he was wrongly told that he was not wanted by the authorities. Since then the oyster farmer had been living quietly in the Republic of Ireland until he was arrested last November over the murder of two Ulster Defence Regiment soldiers – Corporal Alfred Johnston, 32, and Private James Eames, 33 – in Enniskillen in 1972.

The authorities in Northern Ireland say there is sufficient evidence to prosecute him and yesterday at Dublin High Court, Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly ruled that Downey could be extradited to Northern Ireland to stand trial for the murders.