Mark Roscaleer, who is now reportedly on the run in Portugal, was jailed a decade ago after a burglary in Ellesmere Port before escaping HMP Kirkham
A prisoner from Runcorn escaped from a Portuguese jail over the weekend, it has been reported. Mark Roscaleer, who has previously been convicted for violent burglary, 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, aged between 33 and 61 and all jailed for several violent crimes, reports Portuguese outlet Jornal de Noticias.
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It is also reported that the men used a ladder thrown from outside the prison, with the help of three people, before they all fled the scene in a Mercedes and a Volvo. Roscaleer, originally from Runcorn, handed himself in after nine days on the run in 2015. Then aged, 26, he was serving seven years and four months for a raid on an Ellesmere Port pub.
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The ECHO has previously reported on Roscaleer when he was one of two masked men who threatened to “smash” one victim’s skull before he and Karl Steinman, 31, snatched more than £6,300 from The Gunners Arms in 2012. The two men hit the pub, on Thornton Road, in the early hours of May 8, 2012, waking then-licensees Sylvia Gladman and Steven Hill, who were asleep in separate rooms above. Roscaleer donned a balaclava and carried a claw hammer, while Steinman covered his face with a scarf and armed himself with a knife or screwdriver when they gained access via the first floor.
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They demanded that the business partners hand over the contents of their safe, with Roscaleer telling Mr Hill: “Get a move on or I’ll smash your skull in.” The raiders were, however, later tracked by police to another pub and found in possession of most of the stolen cash.
While serving his sentence at HMP Kirkham in Lancashire, Roscaleer absconded from his cell in 2015, with a national manhunt being launched to try and trace the wanted inmate. Following appeals from police, Roscaleer handed himself in.