CONVICTED WEDDING KILLER SURRENDERS; Fugitive was 4 days on run.

Byline: GEORGE JACKSON

A KILLER who jumped bail before he was found guilty of murder has given himself up after four days on the run.

Fugitive James Meehan, 42, walked into a police station with his lawyer in Derry on Saturday, ending the hunt for him on both sides of the border.

Last Wednesday Meehan, his wife Brenda and her son Sean Devenney, were convicted of murdering father-of-four Jim McFadden outside his home at Moyola Drive in the Shantallow area of Derry in May 2007.

Their victim was beaten to death with a crutch in a row that flared after a wedding party that the McFadden family and the killers had attended.

Mr McFadden's widow Ita had been bridesmaid.

The day before the jurors returned their verdicts, Meehan, who together with his co-defendants had been on bail during their 11-week trial, failed to turn up in court and judge Bernard McCloskey issued a warrant for his arrest. He will appear in court in Derry today charged with offences relating to his bail jumping.

On Friday Mrs McFadden appealed for Meehan to turn himself in while Supt Frankie Taylor, who led the murder inquiry, described Meehan as "very dangerous".

Meehan, who was found guilty of murder as a primary party and his wife and Devenney were convicted as secondary parties, each received the mandatory life sentence.

A tariff hearing to determine the length of the time they'll spend in jail is to be held at Derry Crown Court on September 17.

Meanwhile it has emerged that Meehan's father served an 11-year jail sentence for the murder of his wife in 1974.

The killing took place in the Meehan family home in Kells, Co Meath. Meehan's father shot his wife in the head with a shotgun while Meehan and his five siblings slept upstairs.

One year after his mother's death, Meehan and the rest of his siblings were all placed into childrens' care institutions.

CAPTION(S):

VICTIM Jim McFadden CAGED AT LAST Killer James Meehan