Police catch on-the-run dangerman

A convicted murderer who was on-the-run after being given compassionate leave was today recaptured by police.

Jeff Wilson, 38, was challenged by two officers on his way out of his home town of Larne, Co Antrim.

Less than 24 hours earlier he had fled after being freed on compassionate leave from Maghaberry Prison, nar Lisburn, to visit his mother’s grave and his sick father.

Wilson, with a history of violence, had been serving a life sentence for stabbing a man in Brighton in 1987. It is the second time he has absconded.

He was spotted today walking in a hooded parka jacket along the old Ballymena Road, parallel with the A8 dual carriageway to Belfast, with a folded tent under his arm.

At first he gave his name as Mark Jones with an address in the New Lodge Road area of north Belfast, and then changed it to a flat in a tower block in Larne from where he had disappeared after giving two prison guards and his probation officer the slip.

They have been questioned by the prison authorities as part of a full scale investigation into how and why Wilson could escape a second time.

He first got away in March 2001 while out for his mother’s funeral and then left four police officers needing hospital treatment after kicking, biting and punching them when they went to arrest him at a girlfriend’s house.

This time police had warned people to keep away from him, and today, when it looked as if he was preparing to raise his fists and lash out, Wilson, with a heavily scarred skinhead and ring in one ear, was grabbed and handcuffed by the two officers.

Inspector Noel Rogan said later: “They could see he was tensing up and getting agitated when they started to query his identity.

“He was wearing a tan coloured parka coat with a fur trimmed hood, and with the tent under his arm was obviously looking to stay outdoors. The coat is new, but we don‘t know where he got the tent.

“Wilson is a violent man and we are hugely relieved he is back where he belongs.”

Wilson was jailed for life for murdering Brendan Kevin Kelly in Brighton. He was allowed back to Northern Ireland in June 1993 to serve out the rest of his sentence closer to his family, but his latest escape has raised serious questions about the decision by the authorities to grant him parole.

Apart from his previous escape, he had been out several times before, once in March 1998 after which he was later charged with causing grievous bodily harm tofour youths. The case never went to trial.

East Antrim Democratic Unionist MP Sammy Wilson has written to the Northern Ireland security minister Shaun Woodward demanding an explanation as to why somebody with such a violent history could manage to flee two guards and his probation officer in the middle of a town in broad daylight.

He said tonight: “He is quite clearly a dangerous character, but did he have the level of supervision which was necessary?

“People need to be reassured that when prisoners are allow out like this, there must be a degree of control over them, especially when they have violent tendencies.”

A spokesman for the prison service said a full inquiry was under way to find out what went wrong.

He said: “As part of their preparation for release, life sentence prisoners are tested at various stages in the community for re-settlement purposes.

“Although he had absconded in 2001 he subsequently successfully completed a number of other periods of temporary release, both accompanied and unaccompanied.”