Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam has suggested that gunman Paul Magee, who murdered North Yorkshire Special Constable Glenn Goodman, would not qualify for early release under the Good Friday agreement.

In a Commons debate on accelerated prisoner release, she said it was unlikely Magee would be transferred from Portlaoise prison, near Dublin.

He would have to go to Northern Ireland to qualify for release under the Good Friday agreement.

She said: "He is a prisoner in the republic. He could apply for a transfer, but it is unlikely that the movement would take place.

"We accept transfer on the basis that they bring the prisoner closer to his family. Paul Magee is a prime example of someone whose family is not in Northern Ireland."

She said that before the then Home Secretary transferred Magee from England to Ireland he had obtained an agreement from the minister of justice in the republic that the sentence would remain as it was.

"That commitment was made to the Home Secretary and I repeat it here," she said.

Harrogate MP Phil Willis, the Liberal Democrat Northern Ireland spokesman, said today that the release of prisoners under the Northern Ireland peace process should not take place unless their victims' families are notified.

He says victims and their families deserve recognition and respect and he called on the Government to amend the Good Friday agreement.

"Unlike prisoners, victims have not had a 'political wing'. We all have a responsibility to ensure that they are not ignored in this process," he said.

"If the legislation is not amended we would consider it a lop-sided enactment of the agreement, honouring commitments to prisoners but not to victims.

"The Government should at least amend the legislation to ensure that victims are notified of the release of the prisoners that made them victims."

Brian Goodman, father of murdered special constable Glenn Goodman, said notification over possible future release of his son's killer Paul Magee would be "a very, very small consolation".

He said the family, who live near Tadcaster, would like to be notified, but added: "It is no advantage to us really."

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