Irish detectives are to fly to South Africa in 10 days’ time to bring double murder suspect Ruth Lawrence back to Dublin to face trial.
Clontarf woman Lawrence, 42, has already spent six-and-a-half months behind bars in a hell hole jail after her arrest last year. The high-profile prisoner will be released into the custody of a team of Gardai officers in Johannesburg then flown home.
It has taken since last October 4 when Lawrence was arrested in a dawn raid by the elite South African police unit The Hawks to extradite her. Spokesman for the South African Department of Justice Mr Chrispin Phiri confirmed: “The Minister Mr Ronald Lamola has approved extradition.
Read more: Clontarf woman suspected of double murder faces extradition back to Ireland
“The paperwork has been signed for formal extradition to take place and Lawrence will be handed to the Irish police to be returned to Ireland. Her co-accused Neville van der Westhuizen is currently serving 15 years in South Africa for culpable homicide and will serve his sentence first.
“When he has completed his sentence then the Interpol extradition warrant against him will be acted upon and an extradition case will be heard." Lawrence is alleged to have left Dublin in 2014 with her South African lover van der Westhuizen, 40, after two local men were both shot dead.
Pals Eoin O’Connor, 32, and Anthony Keegan, 33, were found buried in a shallow grave and post mortems showed they were blasted in the head. An Interpol Warrant was issued for the arrest of Lawrence and Van der Westhuizen who were by then living in South Africa.
The two professional tattooists are believed to have split up in 2015 with Lawrence working in Johannesburg, Pretoria and finally Bloemfontein. She had dyed her long blonde hair black and used the name Ruth LAWLESS to work in ink parlours.
She was arrested last year after the Irish Director of Public Prosecutions issued a new arrest warrant for the former couple. South African Police already had Van der Westhuizen under lock and key as he had been convicted in 2020 of the culpable homicide of a teenager.
The tattooist was sentenced to 15 years at Durban High Court for the crime as well as kidnapping and GBH which ended with the death of the victim. Lawrence was arrested at a smart suburban property in Bloemfontein.
Ruth confirmed her identity and has been held in custody ever since at the Bainsvlei Police holding cells. At her first court appearance Lawrence chose not to apply for bail and said she wanted to be extradited to Ireland and would even pay the air fare.
Since December when the extradition paperwork was completed between the South African Police and Irish gardai she has been awaiting return. This month the SA Minister of Justice Mr Ronald Lamola signed and rubber stamped the extradition paperwork meaning the Irish police can take her.
Lawrence from Clontarf, Dublin, will be formally charged when on Irish soil on touchdown with murdering O’Connor and Keegan in April, 2014. It is thought both men were shot in the head at close range before their bodies were brought to an island on a lake just off Cavan and buried in a shallow grave.
Six weeks later a local butcher was fishing nearby and recognised the smell of rotting flesh and called out the Gardai who then found their bodies. Blonde Ruth and her lover van der Westhuizen were drawn together by their passion for tattoos and did their inking apprenticeships together.
The alleged killer couple were taught how to tattoo figures onto the bodies of clients who paid them well for their inkwork. A National Prosecuting Authority spokesman said: “As Ruth Lawrence did not object to extradition then it was relatively easy to do the paperwork.
"But Van der Westhuizen has a sentence to serve before his extradition." South African Police will drive Lawrence in handcuffs and leg shackles 250 miles from the Bansvlei holding cells in Bloemfontein to Johannesburg.
Irish police will fly from Dublin on May 21 to Johannesburg then complete the legal paperwork and return home with Lawrence on May 24.
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