Pearse McAuley

Pearse McAuley (born circa 1965 in Strabane) is a former Provisional IRA Volunteer, who escaped from Brixton Prison in London on 7 July 1991 along with his cellmate Nessan Quinlivan, while awaiting trial on charges relating to a suspected IRA plot to assassinate a former brewery company chairman, Sir Charles Tidbury.

McAuley fled to the Republic of Ireland, where he was granted bail while contesting extradition to Britain.

In 1999 McAuley was convicted of manslaughter in Dublin's Special Criminal Court for his role in the killing of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe in the course of an armed robbery and sentenced to 14 years in prison.

He was released from prison in August 2009, having served ten-and-a-half years of his sentence, at which time the Crown Prosecution Service announced it would not seek his extradition on charges related to the Brixton escape.

He is married to Pauline Tully McAuley, a Sinn Féin councillor on Cavan County Council.