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NI: N Ireland: Howard's last defeat

01 March 1997

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Home Secretary Michael Howard's ruling that two IRA men, Tommy Quigley and Paul Kavanagh, should spend the rest of their lives in prison, has been overruled by a Belfast high court judge (23 April). The prisoners were transferred to Northern Ireland on a temporary basis which means that they remain under the jurisdiction of the British Home Secretary rather than the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. They challenged Howard+s refusal to grant a permanent transfer on 9 April but were not successful. When first sentenced in England in 1985, Quigley and Kavanagh were given life sentences and the judge made a recommendation that they serve 35 years. This was increased by David Waddington to 50 years, followed by Michael Howard's decision that "life should mean life". The two men argued successfully in the Belfast court that Howard's decision was flawed because he had failed to consult the original trial judge.

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