Garda killer's extradition hearing set for Friday

A Garda killer who went on the run from Cavan prison Loughan House back in March, only to be arrested in the North is to face an extradition hearing for his return to this jurisdiction on Friday. Twenty-six-year-old Martin McDermott from Raphoe, Donegal appeared before Derry Magistrates Court on Tuesday, May 8, where he submitted an appeal against the four-month sentence he's currently serving in the North for assaulting three PSNI officers while evading arrest. McDermott, who has 91 previous convictions, escaped from the low-security prison in Blacklion, County Cavan on March 15, eight months into a seven-year sentence for killing a garda when he rammed his car in Donegal. At the court on Tuesday he gave his address as c/o Maghaberry Prison. The Department of Justice is currently preparing extradition proceedings with the UK on foot of a European arrest warrant. As a result of McDermott's escape from Loughan House, a facility he had previously escaped from while serving a sentence there in 2007, representatives of the Irish Prison Service were called the Oireachtas Justice Committee. The Minister for Justice Alan Shatter also sought a full investigation in the circumstances of both McDermott's transfer to Loughan House and subsequent escape.