‘Facebook escape artist’ back in court

‘Facebook escape artist’ Jason Freyne will be behind bars until 2016 after a judge yesterday imposed a four month jail term on him for his role in a 160kmph Garda motorway chase.

At Ennis District Court, Judge Patrick Durcan imposed the four-month sentence on Freyne, aged 22, that will run consecutive to a three-month jail term imposed on the Limerick man on Wednesday.

At yesterday’s hearing, the prison service was taking no chances with Freyne who escaped from custody when he ran out the backdoor of Ennis courthouse on his previous court appearance on July 16.

Freyne remained at large for six days and during that time, he posted pictures on his Facebook page dressed in a blue Adidas tracksuit giving the thumbs up.

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

One friend added a picture of the Leonardo Di Caprio movie Catch me if you can urging Freyne to watch it while at large.

Freyne handed himself back into custody last Monday.

Yesterday, three prison officers accompanied Freyne, who was in handcuffs, into court and two flanked him in his seat for the duration of his case.

Freyne of Ash Avenue, Carew Park, Limerick was yesterday appearing before court in relation to pleading guilty to dangerous driving at Cratloe and the unauthorised taking of a car in Ennis on April 19.

Freyne apologised to the garda and the man who he stole a car from on his previous appearance. When asked by Judge Durcan to apologise to other people his dangerous driving affected including an elderly cyclist, another Garda and road users, Freyne refused.

When the case was called yesterday, Judge Durcan said: “This is the case of the man who went into the station forecourt in Ennis where a citizen was going about his business and he hopped into the man’s car and drove and was chased by a member of the Garda Síochána to Limerick and reached speeds of 160km an hour with the sirens blaring and the blue lights flashing.”

Freyne has 46 previous convictions and his solicitor, Edel Ryan told the court that the father of one “has been in and out of detention centres since he was 11”.

She said: “He has had a very challenging start to life and is prone to very poor decision making. Mr Freyne has pleaded guilty and he has accepted that his actions were reprehensible – he saw an opportunity to get back to Limerick and he took it.”

Along with imposing a four-month jail term on each of the charges to run concurrently, Judge Durcan also banned Freyne from driving for four years.