Debate contribution: Prisons: Compassionate Temporary Release
Debate contribution by Mrs Naomi Long on .
- MLA
- Mrs Naomi Long
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 28 September 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Prisons: Compassionate Temporary Release
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5762057
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The Northern Ireland Prison Service presented Gary Anderson to Londonderry courthouse on Monday morning. There, after having the conditions of his compassionate temporary release read to him by Prison Service staff, he was passed to his court-appointed chaperone.
At 11.20 am on Monday, it was advised by the PSNI that it had been contacted by the chaperone who stated that Gary Anderson had absconded from his care and would not be returning to prison. The PSNI immediately put in place arrangements to alert the public, and I am assured that it devoted additional and dedicated resource on a 24/7 basis to secure the return of Gary Anderson to custody. The PSNI was also in regular liaison with colleagues in an Garda Síochána, given the geography of the particular area where Mr Anderson had absconded. I put on record my thanks to the PSNI and to an Garda Síochána for being able to ensure that he was brought back into custody. Any consequences for the chaperone and, indeed, for Mr Anderson are ongoing legal matters. They will be under investigation by the PSNI. That said, there is no suggestion that the chaperone did anything inappropriate. That will be determined as a result of the investigation. It is not helpful to speculate at this point on any consequences that might flow from that. The PSNI is also maintaining regular contact with the Kelly family. I put on record my thanks to Mark Durkan who facilitated a meeting for me and the director general of the Prison Service with the Kelly family last week. I am under no illusions as to the hurt and trauma that the matter has reawakened for them as a family and has caused them; nor am I under any illusions about the gracious nature of the family in the way that they conducted themselves when I met them last week.
312 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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