A DUBLIN criminal who escaped from a prison van taking him from Portlaoise Prison to a court in Dublin 11 years ago yesterday withdrew his High Court application challenging his detention.
Thomas Clarke (38) of Keeper Road, Dublin, who was in court amid tight security yesterday, was extradited from the Netherlands in 1997 several months after he had been sprung by an armed gang while being escorted to court on the Naas Road.
He is serving a nine year sentence for a robbery in the UK imposed in the mid-1990s. His lawyers sought an inquiry under Article 40 of the Constitution into the legality of his detention due to concern over a warrant included as part of his transfer from a UK jail to Portlaoise Prison, where he can serve out his sentence.
When the application aimed at securing Clarke’s release came before Mr Justice Michael Peart at the High Court yesterday, Conor Devally SC for Clarke said his client was “no longer pursuing the inquiry”. The court heard that after talks between DPP officials and Clarke’s advisers, the grounds on which the inquiry was based no longer existed.
In 1997 Clarke, known as “the bomber”, pleaded guilty to escaping from the lawful custody of the governor of Portlaoise Prison on April 25th, 1996, at Naas Road, Clondalkin. He went to the Netherlands, but was caught and extradited several months later.
Judge Kevin Haugh at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court imposed a six-year sentence on Clarke for escaping from lawful custody. That sentence was consecutive to a total of six years and three months imposed on Clarke in 1996 for robbery offences.
Clarke’s escape from the prison van began when it was stopped at traffic lights opposite the Green Isle Hotel, behind a Peugeot car. A BMW in front reversed into the Peugeot. Sensing danger, the van driver pulled into the filter lane, but the BMW also did so and two masked men got out. One, armed with a revolver, covered the second man, who had a wire cutter. This man smashed the van windows. The gun was thrust through a window and the men shouted at the prison officers and the Garda driver to release Clarke.
The gun was put to a prison officer’s head and he was told to open Clarke’s handcuffs, which was done. Clarke got out of the window and into the BMW, stolen hours earlier. The garda and four prison officers were unharmed.
Clarke had completed sentences for offences committed in Ireland in 2005. He was sent to the UK to serve a nine-year sentence for robbery, and was transferred to serve it out in Ireland.
Clarke also escaped from a British jail after a robbery in Yorkshire in 1993. He was being treated in hospital at the time.