Mountjoy prisoner still at large as investigation begins

A violent prisoner was still on the run last night after he escaped while visiting his seriously-ill mother in a Dublin hospice on Sunday.

Ian Stewart (27) has been serving a 10-year sentence in Mountjoy for armed robbery and assault, but he was allowed the compassionate visit to Harold's Cross hospice in the company of three prison officers.

An investigation by the Prison Service was under way yesterday, centring on how the prisoner came to be freed from his handcuffs. It was a condition of the visit that his handcuffs would not be removed.

Meanwhile, a Garda search for Stewart, who is from Tallaght in west Dublin, is continuing. Gardaí refused to give any details about the extent of the operation.

The director-general of the Prison Service, Mr Brian Purcell, said that the hospice visit was "by no means unusual". Prisoners were granted "hundreds" of similar visits every year, "and this sort of thing doesn't happen".

If inmates are near the end of their sentences and are not a danger to the public, the visits are often unaccompanied.

However, the three-man detail assigned to Stewart reflected his circumstances. He was jailed in 2001 and would not have been due for release until 2009.

In keeping with normal practice, the visit was approved by Prison Service headquarters, but its logistics would have been dealt with by one of the prison governors, Mr Purcell said.

"As far as anyone is aware, the handcuffs were to remain on at all times."