Convicted murderer Shaun Walmsley became one of the UK's most wanted men after his escape from custody five years ago.
Walmsley was jailed for life in 2015 for the murder of Anthony Duffy,
But Walmsley, who was a member of a violent drug gang, then began plotting an escape bid by losing weight and pretending to be ill.
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Walmsley's complaints led to a visit to Aintree hospital on February 21 2017.
Walmsley was in a private hire taxi handcuffed to one of three prison guards and they were ready to go back to prison when a car pulled up and they were approached by two men.
One had a very visible Uzi-style submachine gun. Another had a knife and canister. The knifeman demanded the officer with the key unlock the handcuffs telling him he would cut him.
Another threatened to shoot the manacled officer in the leg. The officer uncuffed Walmsley who appeared calm.
He escaped and that was the last time he was seen by any authority figure for the next 546 days.
Walmlsey was arrested on a street in Leeds in August, unrecognisable having grown a long beard and shoulder length hair.
The convicted murderer is now a Category A prisoner being held under far more stringent conditions. The earliest date he can apply for parole in January 2051, when he will be 63.
Dean Colquhoun
Colquhoun escaped from custody while he was being treated in hospital after being arrested by police.
Colquhoun ran out of the hospital when a police officer was forced to take a phone call.
The Huyton crook was then found hiding in a nearby back garden and arrested.
The 26-year-old had been wanted for his role in a burglary committed in Lancashire in January of 2020.
Richard Hanson
Richard Hanson absconded from HMP Thorn Cross in Warrington sparking a high alert given his previous record for killing 18-year-old Gemma Roberts.
Hanson was jailed for life for the shocking attack in 2007 when he killed the teen in the Yorkshire town of Liversedge after earlier telling his girlfriend: "I'm going to take it out on a random person."
He broke free from open prison Thorn Cross in August last year , sparking a high profile manhunt to find him by Cheshire Police.
The killer was detained days later and returned to the prison system to serve the rest of his sentence.
Downes and Bradley
Well known Huyton criminals Kirk Bradley and Tony Downes presided over an underworld network that was involved in a wave of shooting and grenade attacks across Merseyside.
The two men were later charged with conspiracy to possess firearms with intent to endanger life, and face a high stakes trial at Liverpool Crown Court.
Just after 8.30am on the morning of July 18, 2011, a gang of masked men, armed with a sledgehammer and a gun, ambushed the G4S van containing Downes and Bradley in Trinity Way, Manchester.
The raid took place during rush-hour traffic in front of passing motorists and one of the guards was beaten in the street while a gang member shouted at the driver: “Get the f***ing keys out or I will blow your f***ing head off.”
The gang fled in a Saab, which was found abandoned about a mile away in Barrow Street, Salford.
The ECHO understands elite Manchester criminals carried out prison van escape, which was a high risk operation.
Downes organised the escape plot from his cell at HMP Strangeways with a mobile phone which had been secreted in his body.
Prison bosses knew Downes had the phone, despite the fact was suspected of using a phone to organise a city gang war from his Walton jail cell.
The pair fled to Holland but were later tracked down and brought back to the UK to face justice.
Downes was arrested in a car near the Belgium border and Bradley was apprehended a couple of months in an executive apartment.
Bradley, who was 26 at the time of his capture, was sitting in his shorts and flip-flops watching TV and smoking a joint in the 2,500 euro-a-month penthouse apartment in Bijlmer when an armed SWAT team burst through the front door in April 2012.
At around 11.30pm, the team closed in on Bradley, who is originally from Huyton but had been living on Birkey Lane, Formby before being arrested.
Bradley spent nine months on the run being tracked by the Serious Organised Crime Agency and police in Merseyside and the Netherlands.
Although Downes and Bradley were brought back to Britain to serve out life sentences, the gang who freed them from the van have so far evaded justice.
Lewis Aspinwall
A drug dealer who was part of a gang jailed for 135 years for a gun-toting plot to peddle cocaine escaped from prison to attend his gran's funeral.
Lewis Aspinwall was serving six years for the large-scale operation to flood Anfield with 88 per cent high purity of the Class A drug, in a scheme that extended from Lancashire to Devon.
He decided to simply walk out of HMP Kirkham in Lancashire because, he claimed, his grandma Irene Murphy was about to die.
Aspinwall, formerly of Aigburth, feared he might not be given permission to go the funeral as he had recently been caught with cannabis behind bars.
So instead, he absconded and went on the run for five weeks.
The criminal was only caught when police officers noticed a 67-plate Mercedes being driven dramatically on October 13 and realised he was wanted as a fugitive.
At court on November 11, of this year Mike Stephenson, prosecuting, said officers had scoured coroner's records for proof of an Irene Murphy, said to be 67 or 68 by Aspinwall, dying on or around the given date, but had found nothing.
The south Liverpool man pleaded guilty to a single charge of escape and was handed a nine month sentence.
That will be added to his current drug term, but his actual full sentence expires in 2023.
Christopher Flynn
Drug dealer Christopher Flynn who escaped prison told police: "My head fell off so I just got off."
Flynn was jailed for five years and seven months in August 2018 for supplying cocaine, heroin and cannabis.
The 31-year-old was sent to HMP Thorn Cross, a Category D open men's prison in Warrington, on June 19 last year.
But when a roll call was taken at the jail, at 7.50pm on August 16, the crook, of Anfield Road, Anfield, was nowhere to be seen.
Liverpool Crown Court heard prison officers searched for the missing inmate, only to discover he had walked out of the jail earlier that day.
Graham Pickavance, prosecuting, said he was caught by police four days later, at around 2pm, at a house in Prestwood Crescent, Knotty Ash.
He said: "They saw the defendant running off from the rear of that property. One officer gave chase and caught him in a nearby garden."
Mr Pickavance said Flynn made no reply when arrested, but in a police interview he was quoted saying: "My head fell off so I just got off."
Flynn, who appeared via video link from Category B/C jail HMP Liverpool in Walton in September last year, pleaded guilty to escaping from lawful custody.
Judge Menary handed Flynn six months in prison, consecutive to his existing sentence, which means he will serve an additional three months behind bars.
Patrick Garrett
Patrick Garrett went on the run after he slipped his cuffs at Aintree Hospital in March last year.
The 30-year-old, from Vauxhall, was the subject of a huge manhunt and members of the public were warned not to approach him.
Garrett had attended the hospital from Altcourse Prison for medical reason.
After 36 hours on the run, Merseyside Police confirmed that officers had found Garrett and taken him into custody.
Thomas Parkinson
Convicted murderer Thomas Parkinson absconded from an open prison and went on the run for almost three weeks.
Parkinson was serving the final two years of a life sentence when he fled HMP Kirkham, in Lancashire, on 24 April, 2019.
He was convicted as a teenager in 2007 for stabbing Shaun Higgins, 23, at a house party.
Parkinson, then 19, was sentenced to serve a minimum of 12 years and when he absconded from prison he was serving the last two years of his sentence.
He was due to be released in 2021.
The killer was caught by Merseyside Police, in a Southport McDonald's, on May 12, 2019.
Jonathon Nicholls
Liverpool drug boss Nicholls was on the run for three years before police caught up with him - after he flew a helicopter over an airport.
The big-time heroin and cocaine dealer, had been a fugitive since fleeing Kirkham Prison, near Preston, in July, 2015.
The then 36-year-old claimed he fled custody because he was becoming under pressure from other inmates, who wanted him to smuggle illegal items into the prison.
So he escaped, by failing to return from weekend leave and became a fugitive until he guided the chopper into Rochester Airport, in Kent, in August 2018.
The Prescot criminal, who had been serving a nine year stretch for a £1.5m Class A drugs plot, was charged and immediately put before Medway Magistrates' Court.
He pleaded guilty to being unlawfully at large.
And in September 2019 he was sentenced to six months in prison for absconding.
The punishment was ordered to run consecutively with the rest of his nine-year stretch for supplying Class A drugs which was worth £1.5m.
Sean Price
Burglar Sean Price took advantage of the security in an open prison and simply walked out the gates.
Price was jailed for almost six years in 2016, after being convicted of burglary.
The sneaky thief ransacked two St Helens homes just before Christmas in 2015 and stole thousands of pounds worth of jewellery.
But after being caught and the 31-year-old Runcorn man was then transferred to an open prison at HMP Kirkham in Lancashire.
And it was while he was there that he took advantage of the Category D jail's security and just walked out of the front door.
However after six months police caught up with the fugitive and he was back behind bars.
David McConnell
The operator of a secret drug-bashing factory absconded from HMP Kirkham and went on the run for four months.
McConnell had been given leave, but failed to return to custody at the pre-arranged time.
And while on the run it is believed he headed back to the Liverpool area, where he used to live in Knotty Ash following his escape.
But after four months Lancashire detectives confirmed, in December 2017, the then 34-year-old had been located in Liverpool and brought back to custody.
McConnell was jailed for almost a decade for drugs and burglary offences at Liverpool Crown Court in October 2014.
It is not known if the inmate had extra jail time added to his sentence for his escape.
Wesley Seddon
Violent thug Wesley Seddon absconded from prison after being given an undetermined sentence in 2006.
Seddon was required to serve at least five years behind bars after being charged with possession of a firearm with intent.
However the then 30-year-old left HMP Kirkham on November 27, 2018, shortly after he was recalled to prison for breaching his licence terms.
Lancashire Police confirmed to the ECHO that Seddon was caught in December, last year, shortly after absconding.
It is not known if he received extra jail time on his sentence.
Paul Trundle
Convicted robber Paul Trundle sparked a manhunt after he absconded from his 30 month sentence.
The Huyton fugitive absconded from HMP Kirkham in July 2017.
The then 30-year-old was serving a 30-month sentence after being convicted of robbery in November 2016.
Lancashire Police found Trundle in Liverpool and arrested the crook, almost a week after his disappearance.
It is not known if he received extra jail time on his sentence.
Thomas Eaton
Gun courier Thomas Eaton went missing in 2015 after failing to return from a period of temporary licence.
The then 37-year-old was jailed in December 2012, after accidentally leaving an illegal shotgun on the back seat of a taxi.
The absent-minded criminal later phoned Delta taxis in a panic to ask if they had found the sports bag he had forgotten but hung up when told they had called the police.
Police worked out who the hapless courier was from the houses he stopped at and a fingerprint left on the door.
Eaton was arrested and admitted possessing an unlawful firearm, saying he had been acting as a courier and hadn’t touched the gun.
However after being jailed for five years, he absconded from HMP Kirkham on March 31, 2015.
But it was not long before police tracked him down.
Keith Knight
Keith Knight was handed an extra six months in prison after he walked out of prison and went on the run.
Knight claimed he was being targeted by other inmates and therefore fled from his four-year prison sentence.
While on the run, police warned members of the public not to approach him and appealed for the then 26-year-old, from Southport, to hand himself in.
Knight was eventually caught by officers in bed at his ex-girlfriend’s home in Southport three weeks later.
When interviewed after his arrest he explained he left because of certain pressures from occupants or other inmates at Kirkham.
His defence lawyer told the court how on the day he absconded he heard one male amongst a number of males shout ‘get him’ and so he ran and left the prison.
He appeared via video link from HMP Altcourse and was handed a consecutive prison sentence of six months.
Philip Deens
Anfield man Philip Deens failed to return from temporary release from HMP Kirkham, while serving a lengthy sentence.
The then 38-year-old was jailed for almost ten years in July 2012 after stabbing a woman in the chest and slashing her friend.
However on June 26, 2017 he absconded from the open prison and went on the run.
At the time Lancashire Police appealed for anyone with information about the fugitive to come forward, but not to approach him.
He was known to frequent the Kirkdale, Aintree and Walton areas of Merseyside.
Lancashire Police confirmed to the ECHO that Deens was arrested shortly after his disappearance.
Mark Roscaleer
The burglar handed himself in after he absconded from HMP Kirkham in Lancashire.
Mark Roscaleer, then 26, gave up life on the run following a police appeal for information of his whereabouts.
Roscaleer was serving seven years and four months for a terrifying raid on an Ellesmere Port pub in 2012.
A Ministry Of Justice (MOJ) spokeswoman said the inmate absconded from prison on, September 28, in 2015.
However nine days later Roscaleer handed himself in to police.
Thomas Quinn
Thomas Quinn gave prison guards the slip at Aintree Hospital and went on the run, before handing himself in two days later.
The robbery suspect was in jail on remand while awaiting a court appearance for alleged robbery offences.
He was taken to hospital from Walton prison to have a hand injury examined but manage to escape, sparking a major police manhunt.
However after just two days he was returned to custody, on 17 September, 2015, after handing himself in at a police station in Cheshire.
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