MacArthur ‘will have to be set free’

THE Government’s decision to reject the recommended release of murderer Malcolm MacArthur was criticised yesterday by a human rights group.

Minister of State for Justice Willie O’Dea has, for the second time, over-ruled recommendations from the Parole Board to release MacArthur, one of the State’s longest-serving prisoners.

MacArthur has spent the last 22 years in jail for the brutal murder of nurse Bridie Gargan in 1982. MacArthur beat Ms Gargan to death as she lay sunbathing in Dublin’s Phoenix Park. MacArthur was also suspected of murdering Offaly farmer Donal Dunne. For reasons that were never explained, he was not prosecuted for that murder.