Gardai were last night searching for a Portlaoise prisoner who absconded while visiting his family home to see his ill mother. Patrick Wilson, sentenced to 12 years for shooting and injuring a garda during a foiled armed robbery, escaped during a visit to the Oliver Bond flat complex in Dublin.
He had also absconded while on temporary release from Mountjoy prison and was unlawfully at large for 10 months when arrested for the shoot-out with gardai in June 1994. He had previously failed to turn up for trials in 1989 and 1992 when granted bail.
Meanwhile, Trevor Cook, who escaped last month in the taxi used to transport him from Dublin to Castlerea prison, was recaptured on Monday morning in Dublin.