Murderer climbs wall to escape prison

Published on 29/06/2012 02:15

A “POTENTIALLY dangerous” murderer has gone on the run for the third time after escaping over the walls of Pentonville Prison using a makeshift rope.

John Massey, one of Britain’s longest-serving prisoners, made off from the category B jail in Islington, north London, at around 6:30pm on Wednesday.

The 64-year-old used a makeshift rope to escape over a wall and was not spotted in time by prison officers, sources said.

The convicted killer was sentenced to life imprisonment for shooting a man dead with a sawn-off shotgun at a pub in Hackney, east London, in 1975.

Massey is understood to have hidden in the prison’s gym until he could sneak on to the roof and escape over the wall without being stopped. It is thought his makeshift rope was made from bedsheets.

Massey was released on parole in June 2007 after spending the last 18 months of his life sentence in an open prison in Derbyshire preparing for freedom, it is understood. Under his parole terms, he was ordered to live in a hostel under a curfew.

After several months, he broke his curfew and spent a number of days living with his dying father. He was immediately recalled to prison but decategorised after two-and-a-half years before being sent to Ford open jail in West Sussex.

Massey reportedly walked out of the prison after hearing news that his sister was gravely ill. He was rearrested ten months later and taken to Pentonville.

Scotland Yard has advised members of the public not to approach the “potentially dangerous” offender and instead to call 999 if he is spotted.

Prison inspectors found “no obvious problems with physical security” last year at Pentonville.