Search for missing prisoner continues

JASON KENNEDY

A search is continuing for a prisoner who absconded while visiting his sick father in hospital last week.

Christopher Doyle (39) was serving a six-year sentence for dangerous driving causing bodily harm when he fled from St James' Hospital where his father is currently very ill. The incident took place on Wednesday.

A prison service spokesman said prisoners from Mountjoy are handcuffed. However, as Mr Doyle qualified for the prison's training unit he was not and an officer waited outside the father's room during the visit.

During the visit Mr Doyle escaped through the bathroom window.

Mr Doyle was serving his sentence after stealing a car in Roscrea, Co Tipperary and crashing it into a number of people. He was previously given a 12-year sentence for the manslaughter of 81-year-old Meath pensioner Patrick Logan in June 2012.

Mr Doyle and another man Mr Logan’s house and attacked him and his brother and stole €45.

Anyone with information on Mr Doyle’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Garda Confidential Telephone Line 1800 666 111 or any Garda Station.

A spokesman for the Irish Prison Service was unable to immediately provide a total for the number of prisioners who are at large having escaped from custody.

According to a parliamentary question asked in the Dáil last year, a total of 453 prisoners absconded from 2008 to 2011, with a further 33 in the first three months of 2012.

Minister for Justice Alan Shatter said the majority are recaptured.

“Experience has shown that the vast majority of offenders who abscond return or are returned to custody to complete their sentences within a short timeframe.”