Paul "Mad Dog" Magee who gunned down North Yorkshire Special Constable Glenn Goodman has been released from prison, the Evening Press can reveal today.

News that the murderer was set free under the terms of the Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement was met with outrage by Glenn's parents, Brian and Margaret, who live at Ulleskelf, near Tadcaster.

Mr Goodman described Magee's release as "beyond comprehension".

"It's an injustice and an insult to Glenn's memory," he added.

The couple, who have campaigned tirelessly since Glenn's death to keep Magee behind bars, were told of his freedom a full week after he was released in a letter from the Irish minister for justice, equality and law reform.

"We knew he would be released from prison one day, but we have been hoping against hope it would never happen," said Mrs Goodman.

"I was screaming mad when I found out, and I would have killed the man there and then had I been able to.

"We can't help feeling now that there is no justice in this world."

Mr and Mrs Goodman are particularly disgusted that Magee, who served only seven years of a 30-year minimum sentence and had a previous conviction for the murder of an SAS officer, has been freed under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement when he was not tried as an IRA terrorist but as a common murderer.

His IRA connections were not disclosed at his court case.

"We have been screaming for eight years that this isn't a political issue," said Mrs Goodman.

"He is a cold-blooded, callous killer and should not have been released to appease Sinn Fein."

Special Constable Glenn Goodman was gunned down by Magee on the A64 near Tadcaster in 1992.

His colleague, PC Sandy Kelly, of York, was injured in the shooting.

Magee's accomplice, Michael O'Brien, who was jailed for 18 years for attempted murder, has already been released under the agreement.

Ryedale MP John Greenway said most right-thinking people in North Yorkshire would not think justice had been done. He echoed the Goodmans' claim that Magee should not have been treated as a terrorist under the Good Friday Agreement.

"There was never any suggestion that the murder of Glenn Goodman and the attempted murder of Sandy Kelly was in any way an IRA atrocity," he said.