Police killer loses temporary release legal bid

Shane Frane was convicted of the manslaughter of PC Philippa Reynolds

A prisoner who went on the run while serving a sentence for killing a police officer has lost a legal bid over being denied periods of temporary release.

Shane Frane, 36, had challenged an alleged failure to provide him with previous opportunities to demonstrate that he could be freed safely.

His case was dismissed at the Court of Appeal in Belfast on Tuesday.

Judges cited a two-week period earlier this year when Frane was unlawfully at large from prison.

Lord Justice McCloskey ruled that his case had "been rendered academic by supervening events."

Shane Frane, who is originally from Limerick in the Republic of Ireland, is serving an indeterminate sentence for the manslaughter of Constable Philippa Reynolds in a road crash.

The 27-year-old female officer died after a stolen vehicle driven by Frane struck her police car in the Waterside area of Londonderry on 9 February 2013.

Although his minimum six-year tariff expired in 2019, Frane has remained behind bars.

In 2022, authorities refused to free him because they could not be satisfied his imprisonment was no longer necessary to protect the public from serious harm.

Unlawfully at large

Frane then subsequently mounted a legal challenge against the Probation Board and the Prison Service for alleged failures to provide him with the "purposeful" periods of temporary release.

In it, he claimed a breach of his right to liberty under European law.

Previous courts heard that in the past, he completed both accompanied and unaccompanied temporary periods outside jail.

Following a failed drugs test, his pre-release testing (PRT) was temporarily suspended, but later reinstated.

In 2022, the High Court rejected Frane's case after finding that it was his own personal misconduct which led to the PRT being put on hold.

An appeal was lodged in a bid to have that ruling overturned.

However in January, police declared that Frane was unlawfully at large after he breached the conditions of a further unaccompanied temporary release.

He was arrested in the Republic of Ireland the following month on an extradition warrant sought by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

Formally dismissing Frane's legal action, Lord Justice McCloskey said those events meant that the circumstances of the case had been "altered significantly".

He added: "The notice of appeal discloses no coherent grounds of challenge to the order and judgment at first instance."