Prison breakout could have led to hostage situation
STAFF at Limerick Prison say they could have had a "hostage situation on our hands" if not for the prison officers who foiled an audacious escape bid yesterday by a pair of convicted murderers.
Officers entered the cell shared by two Tipperary inmates serving life sentences at around lunchtime on Tuesday.
And in a scene straight out of Hollywood blockbuster 'The Shawshank Redemption', officers found evidence of the escape attempt concealed behind one of the pin-ups of actresses and models pasted to the cell walls.
The inmates, Kevin Prendergast and Anthony Buck, both in their 30s, had used hacksaws to cut through the bars on the window of their cell on the C4 wing and had managed to hide their handiwork behind the racy poster, until yesterday.
It is understood that the men also had prepared bed linen to fashion a rope with which to climb to the ground from their fourth floor cell.
Once the discovery was made, the prison was "put on shutdown", according to one source who spoke to the Limerick Leader. This did not affect the relatives of prisoners as Tuesday is not a visiting day.
A spokesman for the Irish Prison Service said that even if the men had escaped from the cell, there was no risk to the public as they would still be faced with the prison perimeter wall.
But prison workers are understood to have serious concerns about yesterday's incident on C4 wing, the prison's most modern and which is referred to by prisoners as "five star" for its roomy, well-lit cells.
"Two lifers shouldn't be in the same cell in the first place. That's not supposed to happen but often has to because of overcrowding. But they had something, which I presume was a hacksaw or some other blade that they shouldn't have. People think they weren't planning to escape during the day but to wait until night. There's a lot less staff on at night and we could have easily had a hostage situation on our hands here last night," a source told the Limerick Leader.
"They could have been out on the road as well. If you are guarding the gate and somebody comes up holding a blade to the throat of your colleague or friend, what can you do but let them through?"
The Irish Prison Service has confirmed that the prison authorities in Limerick are conducting a full investigation into the incident. The men have been separated and moved to a more secure area. They are also likely to face disciplinary action in the prison.
Kevin Prendergast, 31, from Clonmel, is serving a life sentence for the murder of his girlfriend Joanne Mangan in Grange, County Tipperary in 2007.
Anthony Buck is also serving a life term after he stabbed David Nugent to death in a field in Clonmel in 1996.
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Weather for Limerick
Tuesday 22 May 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 13 C to 19 C
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