Limerick man who fled custody is jailed

A Limerick man who spent six days on the run after escaping from custody has been jailed for four months after a suspended prison sentence imposed for throwing a wheelchair in a busy emergency department was activated.

Jason Freyne, who is originally from John Carew Park in Limerick city, fled from Ennis Courthouse last week shortly after he pleaded guilty to a number of road traffic charges relating to a high speed chase on the outskirst of Limerick city on April 19.

Freyne, aged 23, presented himself to the authorities at Limerick Prison on Monday evening and at Limerick District Court yesterday, Judge Marian O’Leary activated a suspended sentence imposed last February for an incident at the emergency department at University Hospital Limerick.

The four month sentence, which had been suspended for two years, was imposed for an incident where Freyne threw a wheelchair at the receptionist’s glass partition in the emergency department of UHL during an 11 hour wait to be seen by a doctor.

Last Wednesday at Ennis District Court Freyne pleaded guilty to a number of driving offences including charges of dangerous driving, the unlawful taking of the vehicle and driving without a licence or insurance.

The court heard the road traffic offences arose out of a high speed chase on the outskirts of Limerick city that endangered a motorist and an elderly cyclist.

The offences committed on April 19 activated the suspended element of the sentence imposed for the offence committed at the hospital.

After refusing to apologises for his role in the driving offences at Ennis Circuit Court last week Freyne was remanded in custody with an order returning him to Limerick District Court for it to consider activating the previously imposed suspended prison sentence.

However, as Freyne was being returned to the Cell area at Ennis District Court he escaped along with 18-year-old Keith Garrihy from Beechgrove, Newmarket on Fergus, Co Clare, who was recaptured a short time later.

On the run for six days, Freyne posted pictures on social media dressed in a blue adidas tracksuit giving the thumbs up and attracting comments and ‘likes’ from friends online.

One friend added a picture of the Leonardo Di Caprio movie ‘Catch me if you can” urging Freyne to watch it while at large. Others advised him to stay off social media altogether.

A day after he broke free, Frayne posted online to his friends asking “Who else is out today haha?”.

On Monday evening last, Freyne handed himself in to the governor of Limerick Prison. Gardaí have previously described Freyne who has 46 previous convictions, as an “associate of a northside criminal gang, with access to firearms and a large amount of cash”.

When the 23-year-old , appeared before Limerick District Court today (Wednesday) his solicitor Darach McCarthy said his client “would not be resisting the section 99 application to activate the suspended prison sentence”.

Judge Marian O’Leary activated the four-month prison sentence, and Freyne, who is likely to face charges relating to his escape from custody, was remanded in custody and is due to be sentenced in relation to the road traffic matters tomorrow.