Convicted rapist Joseph McCabe will not be pursued in the Republic

A convicted rapist who went missing while out of jail on licence is not to be pursued – for now – in the Republic.
That’s because he is now back in custody in Northern Ireland and is facing a sentence there.
29-year-old Joseph McCabe, whose address in the Republic was given as Belcruit caravan park, Burtonport, was accused of failing to provide his name and other details to gardai in the Republic between
April 12 and 19 under the Sex Offenders Act.
At the time McCabe was released on licence in Northern Ireland after serving seven years of a 14-year-term.
Defence solicitor Donough Cleary told Dungloe District Court McCabe had since pleaded guilty to another matter in Belfast and sentence on that was due in about two weeks.
Mr Cleary asked that the charge against McCabe in the Republic be struck out.
He said McCabe had been punished in Northern Ireland for leaving the jurisdiction and he was now being presented here for the same act.
Judge Paul Kelly noted that McCabe had failed to notify the sex offences registrar in Northern Ireland and that was why he was back before the courts there.
Judge Kelly struck out the charge with liberty for the prosecution to re-enter it at some future stage.
The PSNI confirmed in May that McCabe handed himself into one of their police stations after a month on the run.
McCabe, from west Belfast, was freed after serving half of a 14-year prison sentence when he went missing on April 2.
At the time, the PSNI was criticised for taking more than 60 hours to issue a public warning along with a photograph of McCabe.
He was jailed for 14 years in 2006 for raping and burgling a 64-year-old woman in her north Belfast home as she lay in bed.
While McCabe was in west Donegal there was anger among residents over how a convicted rapist wanted in the North was allowed to live in the area.