A SCOTTISH prisoner who escaped from jail in the Republic of Ireland has been arrested by police in Belfast.
Derek Brockwell, from Glasgow, attacked two prison officers escorting him to Tallaght Hospital from Portlaoise Prison on Tuesday and escaped on a motorbike driven by an accomplice.
He was arrested at a bar on Bedford Street in Belfast city centre at about 7.30pm yesterday. Police said a Taser was used during his arrest.
Brockwell arrived in Dublin in February 2012 after absconding from a prison in Lancashire while he was on day release.
He was serving a life sentence for a series of armed robberies in London.
An Garda SÃochána was liaising with the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) and British police in the search for Brockwell.
All airports and harbour authorities had been alerted.
Earlier, Irish state broadcaster RT� reported that the Irish Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald has asked for a report into the circumstances surrounding his escape.
She said it was a "priority" that Brockwell be returned to prison as quickly as possible.
ends
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article