Former HMP Kirkham prisoner escapes from Portuguese prison and goes 'on the run'
A man from Runcorn is wanted by Portuguese police after he escaped from prison over the weekend.
Mark Roscaleer, 37, was reportedly one of five prisoners to escape the Vale de Judeu prison on Saturday (September 7).
Roscaleer was serving a nine-year sentence for kidnap and robbery when he escaped the prison around 43 miles north of Lisbon.
The 37-year-old escaped along with two Portuguese, one Georgian and one Argentinian inmate. The men, aged between 33 and 61, were all serving sentences for violent crimes, reports Portuguese outlet Jornal de Noticias.
They are said to have escaped the jail by scaling a wall with a ladder while being given "external help" from accomplices on the outside, before they all fled the scene in a Mercedes and a Volvo, said the Portuguese prison service DGRSP.
Roscaleer’s Lancashire jailbreak
While serving a previous sentence at HMP Kirkham in Lancashire, Roscaleer absconded from his cell in 2015, sparking a national manhunt.
Then aged, 26, he was serving seven years and four months for a raid on an Ellesmere Port pub.
Appeals were circulated by Lancashire Police as the force searched for the wanted inmate. Roscaleer handed himself in after 9 days on the run.
Why is Roscaleer in prison in Portugal?
Roscaleer was jailed for nine years in June 2020 after a trial at an Algarve court.
The convicted burglar had been accused of putting a battery cable clamp on his victim’s nipple and penis with accomplice Robert George Anthony Wood, 20, the Mirror reports.
The torture session at an abandoned house on the Algarve led to the terrified 45-year-old victim revealing where he kept thousands of pounds in cash at home.
The British pair were extradited following the October 2, 2018 incident after it was discovered they were hiding in Spain.
"They managed to jump a net because there are no guards to watch the perimeter...put up the ladder against the wall and, from there, with handmade rope, they climbed over the wall," Mr Morais said, according to Sky News.
Luis Neves, the national director of the Judicial Police told Diario de Noticias that all prisoners, with the exception of Fargiani were "very dangerous."
He told a news conference the inmates had "already tried to escape from prison several times" and would do "anything to remain free.."
Mr Neves continued: "When I say everything, I mean everything, including the fact that human life may be at stake here."
According to Mr Neves, the prison break was due to surveillance towers not being manned due to a lack of prison guards.
Herminio Barradas, president of the Association of chiefs of the Prison Guards Corps, said the escaped inmates were "well equipped" and "determined" but also blamed the lack of security.
"There have been no watchtowers for nine years. The cameras filmed everything, but there was no ability to react because of the lack of prison guards," he said, according to Sky News.
Portuguese officials have reportedly asked for international cooperation to find the inmates.