Officers told to cuff escaped convict

PRISON officers were told to keep a dangerous criminal, who escaped during a visit to his ill mother, in handcuffs, the head of the Prison Service said yesterday.

Prison Service director general Brian Purcell said he could not comment on reports officers removed Ian Stewart’s handcuffs as a humanitarian gesture at his mother’s bedside.

“I cannot comment in too much detail, because I don’t want to prejudice the investigation, but my understanding is the governor gave an instruction that the person was to remain in handcuffs during the course of the visit.

“In some way he got out of the handcuffs. Whether or not they were removed or whether or not he slipped the cuffs, I can’t comment at this point.”

Three prisoner officers and a prison chaplain from Mountjoy Jail escorted Stewart to Our Lady’s Hospice in Harold’s Cross, south Dublin, on Sunday.

Stewart, serving 10 years for armed robbery and assault, was allowed compassionate release to visit his mother, who is seriously ill.

Mr Purcell said soon after Stewart met his mother he escaped. He is understood to have jumped out of a window, some 10 feet above the ground.

Mr Purcell would not comment on speculation Stewart had asked to use the toilet and then jumped from a toilet window.

A prison officer is understood to have hurt his ankle when he jumped out the window after Stewart.

Stewart, originally from Moynihan Court, Tallaght, west Dublin, was sentenced for armed robbery and assault in December 2001.

His escape sparked a manhunt and a garda helicopter assisted in police operations in west Dublin and throughout the city.

Gardaí said Stewart was highly dangerous and should not be approached.

Mr Purcell said the Prison Service was carrying out an investigation into the incident. He said it wasn’t unusual that Stewart had three officers escorting him.

“No decision to bring a prisoner out of custody is ever taken lightly, either by the prison governor or people in prison service headquarters. He did have a three-man escort and the chaplain was there. It wouldn’t be all that unusual to have a three-man escort on an outing such as this.”

He said the temporary release would be regarded as a humanitarian visit.

“In general terms, where we have a situation where a member of a prisoner’s immediate family is ill, we try and accommodate them. There’s always a question of maintaining a balance between care and custody, and in this incident a decision was taken to bring this prisoner out ... to the hospice to visit his mother.”

He said there were many such visits each year and few of them went wrong.

“In general, prisoners are well aware that there is a privilege involved in being let out to visit a sick member of their family and by and large prisoners do not abuse that privilege.”