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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
National
John Kierans

Garda killer Stephen Silver 'behaving himself' in prison so will serve life sentence in Mountjoy

Garda killer Stephen Silver will serve his life sentence in Mountjoy Prison.

The Irish Prison Service has no plans to move him and say so far he is a "model prisoner" who is full of remorse.

The former motorbike mechanic, who shot hero detective Garda Colm Horkan 11 times, was sentenced to the mandatory 40-year sentence for capital murder. With remission, he will serve between 26-and-a-half and 30 years behind bars and so he will be at least 73 years old before he can be freed.

READ MORE - Garda killer Stephen Silver sentenced to life in prison for capital murder of Detective Colm Horkan

Prison sources say he gave no emotional reaction to his sentence on his return to Mountjoy afterwards except that he had ruined both Garda Horgan and his own life.

Silver is being detained in a special unit along with several other inmates with known psychiatric issues.

He is given medication every day subscribed by prison doctors to keep him calm.

He has a long history of psychiatric illness and depression but the jury didn't accept he was insane when he executed Garda Horgan in Castlerea, Co Roscommon, in 2020.

Silver will have a meeting with the Mountjoy authorities in the coming weeks to work out a plan for his sentence.

He will be offered work in due course in the prison and be paid over €12 a week.

A prison source said: "Silver will be staying in Mountjoy, there is no need to move him anywhere else at the moment.

"So far he is behaving himself and is not a threat to anyone else. If that situation changes we will review things.

"We have no idea at this stage how long he will remain in the psychiatric unit at the moment."

Silver has already indicated to prison staff after he was found guilty of the capital murder over a month ago, that he intends to appeal the conviction.

He still blames his mental illness for what happened and hopes the appeal court will agree with him.

Garda Horkan's family said the state must ensure Silver serves every day of the 40-year sentence with no early release.

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