Shatter confirms Mc Dermott had absconded from Loughan House before

It’s emerged that a Donegal prisoner who escaped from an open prison earlier this month had absconded from the same facility once before.
The Department of Justice has released details of a report from the Irish Prison Service on the escape of Martin McDermott from Loughan House in Co. Cavan on the 15th of March.
The 25 year old from Raphoe, who was serving a sentence for the manslaughter of Garda Gary McLoughlin in December 2009, was arrested in Derry the following day.
Following the escape on March 15th – the Justice Minister ordered a full report into the incident.
In it, the Prison Service blames an unnamed prison officer for the decision to move the prisoner from the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise to the open centre in Cavan – a decision the Justice Minister Alan Shatter says was wrong.
He says that sufficient consideration had not been given to the gravity of the heinous offence which had been committed.
The Prison Service report also shows that Martin McDermott was previously in custody at Loughan House in 2007, and that he absconded from there on the 27th of November that year.
He returned to custody 6 days later, on December the 3rd.