An Armagh man who shot dead a British soldier at point blank range 14 years ago could serve only a fraction of his sentence, it emerged in an English court today.
Sgt Michael Newman (34), a Royal Signal Corps recruitment officer, was shot dead when leaving an army recruitment office in Derby in 1992.
The army recruitment office in Derby near where Sergeant Michael Newman was shot in the head at
Joseph Magee was jailed for life today in Nottingham Crown Court for the killing after pleading guilty. But as a prisoner convicted of paramilitary crimes, he could be released under the Belfast Agreement after applying to the British Home Office to return to a prison near his home in Armagh.
The 38-year-old was arrested in Limerick in 1993 on an extradition warrant to Britain over the killing, which was claimed by the Irish National Liberation Army.
The extradition was granted but later overturned in the Dublin High Court in 1994 after he argued that unfair publicity in Britain would prejudice his trial.
Magee's lawyers also argued that the offence was political under the terms of Irish law. He spent years in the Republic where he was immune from prosecution, but following the signing of the Belfast Agreement he felt safe enough to return home to Armagh.
Under the terms of the Agreement of 1998, prisoners convicted of paramilitary crimes in Northern Ireland carried out before that date were given early release from prison.
Magee was finally arrested by police in Northern Ireland earlier this year and handed over to Derbyshire Police, who charged him with murder and put him in court in March.
He is now expected to apply to the British Home Office for a transfer to a jail in Northern Ireland and if granted he would then apply to the Sentence Review Commission in Northern Ireland for early release.
Magee, of Callan Crescent, Armagh, was expected to be the first person jailed in England to go through this process, according to the Prison Service of Northern Ireland.
If he was released he would remain on licence. Loyalist paramilitary boss Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair was sent back to prison last year under the same rules at the height of a vicious power struggle in the Ulster Defence Association.