THE paedophile priest, Brendan Smyth, grinned yesterday as he was extradited from Northern Ireland to face 74 sex abuse charges in the Republic.
The priest of the Norbertine Order was extradited to the Republic hours after he was released from Magilligan Prison in Co Derry where he had served a four-year term for sexually abusing children over 20 years in west Belfast.
On his release, Smyth (71) was taken to Limavady, Co Derry, where he appeared for an extradition hearing in the town's magistrates' court.
When the hearing ended, verbal abuse was shouted at Smyth by a crowd of 200 outside the courthouse. One man shouted: "Rot in hell, you bastard". But the convicted paedophile looked towards the crowd and laughed at them.
Smyth was released from prison at 9.15 am. As he was driven from prison to Limavady RUC station, he gazed out of the car window with his chin resting on his hand. He met members of his legal team at the police station and detectives from Dublin and Belfast.
Several hundred people gathered outside Limavady courthouse just after 11 a.m. The RUC imposed parking restrictions outside the building and dozens of police officers were on duty.
The extradition hearing lasted nine minutes. The warrants attached to each of the 74 charges related to sex-abuse offences allegedly committed by Smyth in the Republic between January 1st, 1967, and June 30th, 1993.
Smyth faces 47 charges of indecent assaults on females, 12 sex assault charges on females under the 1990 Rape Amendment Act and 15 charges of sexually assaulting males.
During the hearing, Smyth stood in the dock beside an RUC sergeant. He remained silent except to reply "yes" when he was asked if he understood five specimen charges. An RUC detective inspector told the court that he arrested Smyth at Magilligan Prison yesterday at 9.12 a.m. on 74 warrants produced by the Republic's judicial authorities.
He applied to have Smyth delivered into the custody of the Garda. Defence solicitor Mr Brendan McCann, of Donnelly and Wall solicitors, Belfast, said his client was happy to waive the formal identification and to waive his right to remain in custody for another 15 days to lodge an appeal. The magistrate ordered that the extradition order take immediate effect.
After the hearing, Smyth was driven to City of Derry airport where he boarded an aircraft at 1.28 pm. which took off at 1.35 p.m. for Dublin.