Prisoner who escaped while in transit back in custody

A prisoner who escaped while in transit on Thursday was back in custody yesterday after a Garda raid on a house in Waterford city-centre.

Four other men were also detained following the arrest of Adrian Duke (29), from Farranree, Cork city, late on Saturday night.

Two of the four were released last night and gardai said a file was being prepared on them for the DPP.

Duke escaped after an armed gang intercepted a minibus in which he was being taken to Cork Prison from Waterford, smashed the windows and demanded he be released.

His arrest followed a search of a house in Waterford by a "large force" of gardai at 10.50 p.m. on Saturday, said Supt Michael McGarry of Waterford. "We are very pleased with the entire operation. He did not resist and no member of the public or the Garda was injured."

The four other men, described as associates of Duke, were arrested in follow-up operations, and further arrests are considered likely.

It is expected that Duke will be returned to Cork Prison today, where he was awaiting trial on robbery charges. He had appeared at Waterford District Court on Thursday on a burglary charge which was struck out after the complainant declined to give evidence.

His subsequent escape led to a call by the Labour Party justice spokesman, Mr Brendan Howlin, for an inquiry into the "breakdown in security procedures" for the transport of prisoners. Patrick Brassil escaped last month after holding a blood-filled syringe to a prison officer's neck at a petrol station in Rathcoole. He was being taken from Mountjoy to Cork.

Duke's escape took place on the main Cork road, about four miles from Waterford, shortly before 6 p.m. The hired minibus in which he was travelling with another prisoner, three prison officers and a civilian driver, was forced to stop by a car which pulled in sharply in front of it.

While the driver remained in the red Opel Vectra car, at least two men, wearing balaclavas and armed with what appeared to be a handgun and other implements, approached the bus, smashed the windows and demanded Duke's release. The se cond prisoner, who had received a custodial sentence earlier that day, remained in the bus while the gang escaped with Duke.