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Bobby Tohill kidnapper remanded

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A north Belfast man who was on the run for four years in relation to the kidnap and attack on dissident republican Bobby Tohill has been remanded in custody.

Detective Inspector Trevor Briars told Belfast Crown Court that on foot of a bench warrant issued in May 2006, he arrested Henry Joseph 'Harry' Fitzsimmons, 41, in Aughnacloy on Thursday morning.

Solicitor Philip Breen said there was no bail application so Lord Justice Girvan remanded Fitzsimmons into custody and said he will sentence him next month, after the Easter break.

Fitzsimmons, from Spamount Street in north Belfast, was part of a four-man gang who abducted Mr Tohill from a city centre bar and bundled him into a van where he was severely beaten in February 2004.

A member of the public who saw Mr Tohill being forced into the van called the police and the van was intercepted near Castle Street.

All four men, Fitzsimmons, Thomas Tolan, 39, from Ballymurphy Parade, Gerard McCrory, 38 of Dermott Hill Road and Liam Rainey from New Barnsley Crescent, pleaded guilty to kidnapping Mr Tohill but all failed to turn up to be sentenced in May 2006.

Since then Tolan and McCrory have been arrested.

They were jailed for six and a half years and seven years respectively in January 2007.

Liam Rainey is still being hunted by police.

Fitzsimmons was originally arrested in Dundalk, Co Louth and brought before the High Court in Dublin last December on foot of a European Arrest Warrant.

© UTV News

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