Liverpool mayor demands explanation of how convicted murderer was sprung from custody during escorted visit to hospital

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The mayor of Liverpool has demanded an urgent security review after a gangland killer was sprung from custody by an armed gang while on a hospital visit.

Merseyside police have confirmed that Shaun Walmsley, 28, remains at large after the ambush outside Aintree University hospital in Liverpool at about 3pm on Tuesday.

Walmsley was getting into a minicab with three prison guards when they were threatened with a gun and knife by his accomplices. Neither guard was seriously hurt but Walmsley escaped with the attackers in a gold-coloured Volvo.

Walmsley, a drug dealer who ran a nationwide crime network, is serving a life sentence with a minimum of 30 years at HMP Liverpool for the murder in May 2014 of Anthony Duffy, who was lured to a street near Aintree racecourse and repeatedly stabbed.

Joe Anderson, the Labour mayor of Liverpool, called on Wednesday for an urgent review into the “frightening” security breach.

He said: “It’s just incredible really, unbelievable that a category A prisoner with such a history of killing would be in this position where he could plan and execute an escape, because that’s what it seems to me has gone on here.

“It’s clear that it’s been planned and it’s frightening that it’s been executed. We need to get an explanation as to what security arrangements were around this prisoner and is it the right thing that during ordinary hours category A prisoners are allowed to make scheduled hospital appointments.”

Anderson said he had asked the home secretary, Amber Rudd, to review security arrangements around category A prisoners making scheduled hospital visits.

Police say Walmsley remains at large. Photograph: Merseyside police

In a letter to Rudd, Anderson said: “I am appalled that during a period of heightened tensions in the city, which has resulted in two gangland executions carried out in public in the last three weeks, that a major gangland figure was gifted the opportunity to abscond in the manner he did.

“I can only speculate what sort of activity will follow within the criminal underworld now that this individual is at large but I will not be surprised if those tensions are escalated even further.”

Category A prisoners are defined as “those whose escape would be highly dangerous to the public or national security”. They are further separated into standard risk, high risk, and exceptional risk, depending on how likely they are to try to escape.



Ministry of Justice guidelines say: “The minimum standard escort strength is two officers or more with restraints applied to the prisoner in all but exceptional circumstances.”

They state that prison managers must undertake a risk assessment to decide the level of escort and restraint before any hospital visit, and that this risk assessment must be approved by the prison’s head of operations or governor.

Mike Rolfe, the national chair of the Prison Officers Association, said the escape was a “sad indictment” of government cuts to the prison service.



He said: “He would have been in a normal taxi, so we understand, going to hospital. Years ago, he would have been escorted by a prison secure van. The secure van would have been able to park directly at the entrance [and] that would have meant there would have been additional uniformed staff around.”

Rolfe said the officers involved were “shaken up” but physically unharmed.

Walmsley was sentenced for murder along with three other men in June 2015. The judge in the trial, Clement Goldstone QC, said Walmsley and one of his accomplices, Christopher Kenny, considered themselves “untouchable”, adding that the gang arranged to have Duffy “delivered up as their prey”.

After the sentencing, police said Walmsley and his accomplices had neither shown any emotion nor expressed any remorse for their crime. In his sentencing remarks, the judge told the men: “This was a murder committed to enforce your self-perceived position of drug dealers of importance in Liverpool.”

The court heard that Duffy suffered 28 wounds during the attack. One witness told the jury that “two men appeared and one of them started stabbing him”. He said: “One just pulled a knife out and started stabbing.”

Merseyside police described the gunman who assisted in Walmsley’s escape as having his face covered and wearing white shoes, grey tracksuit bottoms with a stripe down each side, a grey hoodie and a dark coat. The man armed with a knife had his face covered and wore a green coat, dark Nike trainers and grey tracksuit bottoms.



Officers said Walmsley is about 6ft tall and of slim build with dark brown hair and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing dark bottoms and a dark jacket.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest An image released by Merseyside police of the gold-coloured Volvo used in the prison escape. Photograph: Merseyside police/PA

Police said they received a report of the escape at about 3pm on Tuesday and launched a manhunt: “Patrols attended at the hospital immediately, and an extensive search of the area is under way and CCTV is being sought.”

Detectives on Wednesday revealed that Walmsley’s accomplices had been lying in wait outside the hospital for 90 minutes before the ambush.

Merseyside police said the Volvo had been parked in the Adlam Crescent area of Fazakerley – half a mile from the hospital – with at least one man inside from about midday.

The getaway car then travelled the short distance to Aintree University hospital at about 1.25pm, police said, where it lay in wait before springing the killer from custody at 3.05pm.

A police spokeswoman said officers then found the vehicle at 8pm in Adlam Crescent.

Police said they had traced the car’s last registered owner, who sold it privately two months ago. Detectives have appealed for information from anyone who may have seen the vehicle in the two months leading up to Tuesday’s ambush.

Det Supt Natalie Perischine said: “An investigation into the full circumstances of the incident is ongoing and Merseyside police is working with the Ministry of Justice and other forces across the country to establish Walmsley’s whereabouts so that he can be returned to prison.” She described Walmsley as a “highly dangerous individual”.



