By Alan Healy
A Derry republican has been returned to jail just 36 hours after he was released from prison on licence last week.
Neil Hegarty was released from Maghaberry Prison on Tuesday of last week after serving five years of a ten-year custodial sentence passed down at a Derry court in May 2014.
Mr Hegarty was convicted of possessing of an armour piercing mortar, known as an Explosive Fired Projectile (EFP) was discovered after a car was stopped in the Westway area of Creggan on December 3, 2012.
Hegarty and two other men, Jason Ceulemans and Damien Harkin, were handed 10 years each — half to be served in custody, and half on supervised licence.
All three men had spent a significant period on remand before the sentence was passed down.
As part of the conditions of his release, Mr Hegarty was required to wear an electronic tag and tell police if he intended to leave the north.
Mr Hegarty was detained by police at his Creggan home in Wednesday, after which his licence was revoked and he was returned to prison.
The Derry News understands that PSNI officers told the father-of-three that the reason for him being detained was that firm responsible for fitting the electronic tag said that Mr Hegarty was not available to have the device fitted.
His solicitor, Ciaran Shiels, said that Mr Hegarty, Ceulemans and Harkin had visited Strand Road police station earlier that day, where Mr Hegarty had told police of his intention to travel across the border in the coming days.
Mr Shiels said that no issues were raised by police during the visit.
He added that that during his period in custody, Mr Hegarty had been released on compassionate bail several times, which included an overnight stay in Cork, and he had returned to prison on each occasion with no difficulty.
The solicitor added the decision to return Mr Hegarty to prison was ‘an absolute disgrace’ and that it would now be challenged.
The Department for Justice (DfJ) said that it would not comment on individual cases.
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