Stormont Justice Minister Naomi Long has said she gave the Assembly information that was available to her at the time after being accused of misleading MLAs over a murderer who absconded from prison.

Ms Long faced questions from across the Assembly chamber as killer Gary Anderson remains on the run after being granted temporary release to attend his father’s funeral in Londonderry last week.

The criticism centres on her account of whether the Northern Ireland Prison Service was given an opportunity to reconsider its decision to refuse Anderson temporary release.

Earlier Ms Long said she hopes to meet with the family of Anderson’s victim Karol Kelly to apologise, as well as announcing an independent review to probe the sequence of events.

Anderson absconded last Monday after being granted temporary release from Maghaberry Prison to attend his father’s funeral.

A police hunt is ongoing with An Garda Síochána in the Irish Republic also involved because of the proximity of where Anderson disappeared to the border.

The public have been advised not to approach him.

The 29-year-old was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2023 for the murder of Mr Kelly in Derry.

Father-of-five Mr Kelly died in Grafton Street in the city in the early hours of March 4 2018 following an altercation during which he was stabbed several times.

Anderson and his brother, Sean Anderson, were found guilty of the killing.

Both prisoners had applications for temporary compassionate leave to attend their father’s funeral turned down by the prison authorities.

Those decisions were challenged in the courts and while the decision to refuse leave to Sean Anderson was upheld, the court ordered that Gary Anderson could be temporarily released with conditions attached.

Last Tuesday, Ms Long said she had indicated that the court could have not afforded the Northern Ireland Prison Service an opportunity to reconsider or retake its original decision to refuse compassionate temporary release.

She said that was her understanding at the time, and it was only when the judgment was published in full on Friday that a different version of events emerged.

At the start of Monday’s Assembly session, Speaker Edwin Poots said it appeared that the information provided in the House at that time “was not fully accurate”.

“It is the responsibility of any minister or member to inform the Assembly and correct the record at the earliest opportunity if they discover that the Assembly was told something, even inadvertently, that was subsequently discovered to be inaccurate,” he told MLAs.

“The Justice Minister was in touch with my office over the weekend to make arrangements to bring a statement to the House on these matters today, and I welcome that.”

He added: “I do want to point out, particularly to officials, that I do not expect any minister to be put in a position where they are exposed in the Assembly because they have not been given full information.”

SDLP MLA Mark H Durkan described “a mess”, and said while Mr Kelly’s family has welcomed the steps Ms Long has set out, it is “hard to convey the impact that this situation is having on them”.

He told Ms Long their “confusion has been compounded by some of the misinformation and the answers that you gave them here last week”.

DUP MLA Paul Frew said his concerns were over public safety, and urged Ms Long to apologise for “misleading this House”.

Addressing MLAs on Monday morning, Ms Long said Mr Kelly’s family “remain at the very forefront of my thoughts”, having “already endured unimaginable pain and loss”, while recent events have “understandably renewed their distress and caused significant concern”.

She told MLAs that what she said in the Assembly last Tuesday was based on information available to her at the time.

“I accept that what I said in the chamber last week was based on the information that was available to me at that time, and there is additional information,” she said.

“I have already apologised both to the family over the airwaves and to the people of this chamber over the airwaves, and I’m happy to apologise again because there was no intention on my part to mislead this chamber.

“I was fully candid about the information that I had at that time.”

With continuing questions, including DUP MLA Jonathan Buckley describing a “catastrophic failure for the justice system”, Ms Long claimed that some were attempting to use the issue as a “political football”.

Meanwhile Ulster Unionist Party leader Jon Burrows said the public are “frightened” and Mr Kelly’s family “retraumatised”, adding that it was not Ms Long’s integrity he questioned, but her competence, and also questioned why she had not addressed the updated information earlier.

Ms Long responded saying: “The reality is that my competence is not being questioned by those who work most closely with me and see the job I do.

“Others judge their confidence based on how many TikToks they can issue over a weekend.

“We don’t do that because this is a serious job that I have to do as Justice Minister.

“My job in communicating is not to whip up fear and likes on social media, it is to reassure the public to make sure that this House is informed at the appropriate juncture, and therefore I wanted to be sure of my facts before we put anything else out into the public domain because every time we put something into the public domain, and it needs to be changed, altered, corrected, developed.

“It is more stress for the victims in this case.”