Irish prison escapee Brockwell transferred to England
A notorious Scottish convict who escaped from Irish prison officers in Tallaght hospital, stabbing one in the stomach, has been transferred to a jail in England, police said.
Derek Brockwell, 53, fled custody last month and was captured by police in Belfast.
Irish police arrested three people over his violent escape earlier this week.
PSNI Superintendent Paula Hillman said: “PSNI can confirm that Derek Brockwell, who was unlawfully at large from the Republic of Ireland, has been released from hospital and transferred to HMP Frankland, England.”
Brockwell had been receiving treatment in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast since his arrest on Wednesday February 18 in Belfast city centre.
Officers hit him with a Taser after he attempted to stab himself. He was transferred to England today.
Two men and a woman have been held at Garda stations in Dublin over his escape from the city. They were arrested in the Ashbourne area of Co Meath and Portlaoise in the Midlands.
Brockwell was recaptured after being caught drinking a pint yards from two Belfast shops he is suspected of holding up with a knife.
He was detained with the help of a Taser by armed police officers on February 18, just days after he escaped from custody across the border.
Brockwell is also wanted by police in England, where he failed to return to prison in Lancashire to serve a series of life sentences, having been out on day release.
He was being taken to Tallaght Hospital in south Dublin from high-security Portlaoise Prison for a medical appointment when he made his escape.
Two prison officers accompanying him were stabbed in the incident, with one requiring emergency surgery for a serious stomach wound.
Brockwell was handed 22 life sentences in the UK for armed robbery and had appeared as a wanted man on the BBC’s Crimewatch show.
After fleeing hospital in Dublin he was picked up by an awaiting accomplice on a motorbike or in a car which sped away from the scene.
The serial criminal was two years into a seven-year sentence for armed robbery after he admitted holding up the Bank of Ireland in Blackrock, south Dublin, in October 2012.
He was also convicted of robbing a post office and a bookmaker’s as well as for firearms offences in the Irish capital.
Brockwell landed in Ireland after failing to return to Kirkham Prison in England, where he had been allowed out on day release for a work scheme.
A full report has been ordered into the circumstances around the escape by Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald.
