Police case book on Border Fox reopened
By Michael McHugh
19 June 2006
The Historic Enquiries Team is to investigate a string of Co Armagh murders allegedly committed by the ‘Border Fox’, Dessie O’Hare, during the Troubles.
The veteran IRA and INLA gunman is due to be released from prison in the Irish Republic shortly and there have been calls for him to be arrested on warrants dating back up to 20 years.
The Northern Ireland Office has referred Westminster questions about the O’Hare case to the HET, which was set up earlier this year to probe all unresolved Troubles murders.
O’Hare (50) was allegedly spotted at his wife’s home in south Armagh while on early release from prison and there have been calls for him to be arrested after the Families Acting for Innocent Relatives lobby group linked him to 27 murders.
FAIR spokesman Willie Frazer said it was up to police to arrest O’Hare as soon as he is released from prison.
“He can admit that he murdered 27 people and yet the police can’t turn him in. There were warrants issued for his arrest and yet the PSNI has not done so,” he said.
“How can you be one of the most wanted men in Ireland and then find that nobody wants to arrest you?
“Surely the police should be trying to arrest him? If they will not do so then we are considering taking a civil case against him. If that is what it comes down to then that is what we will do.”
O’Hare was sentenced to 40 years in an Irish prison for kidnapping and hacking off the fingers of a Dublin dentist in 1987.
However, after serving just less than half his sentence, he was released last month amid a storm of fury on an extended period of temporary release after successfully arguing he was eligible under the Good Friday Agreement.
Mr Frazer said he hoped the HET would uncover more evidence of crimes which O’Hare has been linked to, including the Darkley Gospel Hall massacre in 1983 and the 1977 murder of young mother Margaret Hearst from Armagh.
Lord Laird has been probing the matter in the House of Lords and a Government spokesman told him: “The offences allegedly committed by Mr Desmond O’Hare pre-date the Belfast Agreement.
“Terrorist-related offences committed prior to the Belfast agreement are being progressed by the PSNI’s historical enquiries team (HET).”
The PSNI has declined to discuss the O’Hare case since he turned up at his wife’s home in Newtownhamilton at the beginning of the month after being released from Castlerea Prison in the Republic in April.
