Prison escapee awarded €15k

MAZE prison escapee Brendan ‘Bik’ McFarlane was yesterday awarded €15,500 over his prosecution for the kidnap of supermarket boss Don Tidey in the 1980s.

McFarlane, 59, was cleared in Dublin’s Special Criminal Court in 2008 of false imprisonment and firearms possession in relation to the business- man’s 23-day hostage ordeal in 1983.

McFarlane had already launched a challenge to the case in the European Court of Human Rights when the trial was given the go ahead in 2006.

The European court found the 10-and-a-half- year wait from his arrest in 1998 until he walked free was excessive.

The ECHR ordered the Government to pay McFarlane €5,500 damages and €10,000 costs and expenses.