Man convicted of Mullingar killing arrested by Australian police after three-week search

(Above) Patrick Farrell.

The Australian police force's three week hunt for the man convicted of killing Leitrim student Andrew Dolan in Mullingar in 2011 came to an end this week when he was arrested.

Kildare native Patrick Farrell was reportedly arrested by arrangement at his lawyer's office in the New South Wales city of Paramatta on Wednesday afternoon.

He was subsequently charged in connection with an alleged one punch assault in November last year and the alleged stabbing of a fellow Irish national in August. Both incidents allegedly occurred in Sydney.

Investigating officers believe that Mr Farrell spent the last three weeks in rural New South Wales evading their attentions after arrest warrants were issued against him.

Speaking to the media, detective inspector Rod Pistola said officers were investigating if anyone helped Farrell during his three weeks in hiding.

"Both of the offences are very violent and we're glad to get him off the street. I think he [Farrell] is possibly relieved that it's now over, that he's not looking over his shoulder everywhere he goes."

Farrell is expected to spend the next two months in custody after his hearing was adjourned until December 2. According to Australian media, it is likely that he will be deported to Ireland afterwards.

In 2013, Farrell, who entered Australia on a student visa, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for the manslaughter of Carrick-on-Shannon native Andrew Dolan on December 23, 2011.

Mr Dolan, a student at NUIG, was the victim of an unprovoked attack on Pearse Street in Mullingar, and died in Beaumont Hospital on January 1, 2012.

Speaking to the Irish Times last month after news of Farrell's alleged assaults reached Ireland, Mr Dolan's mother, Rose, said that it was a “hundred times worse” to think that the attack on her son was not a one-off incident.

“I liked to think that it was somebody who went too far that night, someone who had never done that before and would never do it again. That made it a bit easier to accept.”