New arrest warrant issued for escaped prisoner

A fresh arrest warrant has been issued for a man who escaped from prison last year with more than four years left to serve on his sentence.

John McDonagh was serving a five-year term in Loughan House Prison when he fled in June 2011.

He had been in imprisoned at the low security facility in Cavan for about six months at the time.

McDonagh (aged 47) of Kylemore Road, Ballyfermot had pleaded guilty to possession of a shotgun and ammunition at Labre Park, Ballyfermot on July 13, 2009.

He also admitted breaking into the Irish Social Finance Centre at Grattan Crescent, Inchicore with a group of other men between August 7 and 10, 2009 and assaulting a neighbour with a shovel in 2001.

After the unprovoked assault, which left his neighbour with a collapsed lung, McDonagh fled to England. He was later caught and sentenced for the firearm, assault and burglary on November 30, 2010.

He has 16 previous convictions, including a three-year jail term for assault in Britain.

Today, at a vacation sitting of Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, the Chief States Solicitors Office applied for a renewed arrest warrant for the capture of McDonagh.

Judge Carmel Stewart granted the order and issued an arrest warrant.