Escaped prisoner captured in Offaly

Ciara Galvin

A PRISONER who escaped custody while receiving treatment at Mayo University Hospital last week has been caught in Co Offaly.
The 33-year-old escaped from the hospital on Saturday morning, September 8, while attending the Emergency Department. He was a prisoner at Castlerea Prison and was on remand on a burglary charge.
Gardaí had been searching for the prisoner when colleagues in Tullamore, Co Offaly responded to a call on Monday night, September 10 that a burglary was in progress at Clara Catholic Church, at approximately 10.30pm.
When Gardaí arrived at the scene they observed a side window of the church broken. Following a search of the area, a male, and a female in her late twenties, were arrested in connection with the burglary investigation.
Both were conveyed to Tullamore Garda Station and detained and it was later established that the male suspect was the same person who fled from custody while attending Mayo University Hospital two days before.
Both arrested persons appeared before Portlaoise District Court last Tuesday.