McFarlane arrested 'hours before parole'

Maze prison escapee Brendan McFarlane was arrested just hours before the Northern Ireland Secretary of State Mo Mowlam was due to sign his final papers releasing him from parole, the Special Criminal Court heard today.

Superintendent James Sheridan said that he arrested McFarlane on a bus travelling from Dublin to Belfast in 1998 after he received confidential information that a man fitting his description was in the State.