GARDA killer Pearse McAuley, sentenced this week for a frenzied knife attack on his estranged wife, was the recipient of a 'comfort letter' under the British government's controversial 'on the run' scheme.
The prominent republican stabbed former Sinn Féin councillor Pauline Tully 13 times on Christmas Eve last year leaving the mother-of-two fighting for her life.
McAuley was sentenced to 12 years in prison - with four of those suspended in a sentence that has been criticised as too lenient.
With remission he is likely to be free in just five years.
He was also sentenced to four years which will run concurrently for making threats to kill his brother-in-law Thomas Tully.
Ms Tully suffered serious injuries, including a punctured lung, during the incident at her home in Kilnaleck area of Co Cavan.
Speaking after sentencing Ms Tully told how after McAuley stabbed her the IRA man called her sons, aged seven and four, downstairs and told them to say goodbye to their mother.
"He wouldn't allow them to hold me. I was sure I was going to die and not see my children grow up," she added, claiming the attack had been a "clear and calculated" attempt to kill her.
The former IRA man was released from prison in the Republic in August 2009 after serving his full jail term for the 1996 killing of Garda Detective Jerry McCabe.
Garda McCabe was shot dead during a botched robbery in Co Limerick.
Four men, including McAuley, were convicted over the killing and although the IRA at first denied involvement, Sinn Féin later campaigned to have the men released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
The Irish government refused the request saying the men were not eligible under the terms of the treaty.
He married his wife in Castlerea Prison in Co Roscommon after she visited the jail as part of a Sinn Féin delegation.
In 1991 along with Nessan Quinlivan, McAuley broke out of Brixton prison while they were awaiting trial on conspiracy to murder Sir Charles Tidbury, former chairman of Whitbread brewers, and conspiracy to cause explosions.
The pair shot their way past a number of guards and once outside the walls of the prison hijacked a car, shooting the driver in the leg.
They fled to the Republic where McAuley was arrested two years later but bailed while awaiting extradition before being captured and convicted of the manslaughter of Garda McCabe.
Upon his release from prison in 2009, McAuley was told he would not face charges in Britain in relation to the kidnap or the escape as the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had reviewed the case.
The CPS said at the time there was "no longer a realistic prospect of a conviction".
His 'amnesty' was believed to have been part of an 'administrative scheme' negotiated between Sinn Féin and the then Labour administration to deal with the issue of the OTR republicans.
McAuley travelled freely across the border from his home in Co Cavan and worked on a voluntary basis for an ex-prisoners group in Strabane prior to the attack on his ex wife.
