AI generated picture of HMP Hydebank Wood
A man from Northern Ireland who left HMP Hydebank Wood in 2002 without permission, while serving a sentence for narcotics offences, is still at large 24 years later.
According to authorities, he was the only prisoner from the province to be unlawfully out of their jail over the New Year period.
The only photograph that the Northern Ireland authorities have of the man was taken when he was 19 years old, when he first entered prison. He has been on the run for well over half his lifetime.
His period of unofficial freedom is the longest in Northern Irish history, the previous record holder having been at large for 22 years after failing to return to prison after a Christmas temporary parole in 2001. In 2023 that man was captured in Wales and sent back to Northern Ireland where he was ordered to serve an extra eight months on top of his original five-year sentence, which was handed to him back in December 2000 at Belfast Crown Court.
The Northern Ireland Police and Prison Services said that over the past 12 months they had been successful in rearresting those who had unofficially left their jails, with the sole exception of the one man they still seek.