Shaun Walmsley told he will not be freed until he is at least 62

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A convicted murderer who spent 18 months on the run after being sprung from custody by armed men has been jailed until at least 2051.

Shaun Walmsley, 29, was sentenced to eight years in prison in addition to a life sentence he was serving when he escaped in February 2017.

Appearing at Liverpool crown court via video link from HMP Manchester, the killer smirked as he was told he would not be free until he was at least 62 years old.

Walmsley was serving a minimum 30-year term for a gangland murder when he was sprung from custody during a hospital visit in Liverpool by men armed with a machine gun and a machete.

He became one of the UK’s most wanted men as detectives launched an international manhunt, believing he had fled overseas. He was arrested when armed officers stopped a car in Leeds on 21 August.

The convicted drug dealer, who ran a nationwide crime network, was one of four men serving life sentences for the murder of Anthony Duffy, 33, who was lured to a street near Aintree racecourse and repeatedly stabbed in May 2014.

Detectives believe Walmsley orchestrated his plan to escape when an appeal against the severity of his sentence was rejected in late 2016. Faced with the prospect of being in jail until his late 50s, they believe he fooled prison medics into believing he had a serious illness – losing up to four stone in weight – so he could be referred to specialists at Aintree University hospital.

Walmsley was getting into a minicab with three prison guards when two masked men jumped out of a gold-coloured Volvo. They threatened the guards, who released Walmsley from his handcuffs, allowing him to flee in the car.

The killer then fled to Manchester, where it is believed he obtained new identity documents and a mobile phone.

Sentencing Walmsley on Tuesday, Judge Clement Goldstone QC said the defendant used extensive and precise planning to hatch his escape plot over several months from behind bars.

Jailing Walmsley for eight years for escaping from lawful custody, Goldstone said it would an an insult to society if the sentence was to run concurrent to his life sentence for murder.

Walmsley had only served a year of this 30-year minimum term for murder, and must serve at least half his eight-year term for breaking custody, meaning it will be at least 33 years before he comes up for parole.