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Police catch second Pentonville prison escapee Police catch second Pentonville prison escapee
(35 minutes later)
Police have caught the second prisoner who escaped from Pentonville prison last week.Police have caught the second prisoner who escaped from Pentonville prison last week.
James Whitlock and another prisoner, Matthew Baker, escaped from the north London prison on 6 November.James Whitlock and another prisoner, Matthew Baker, escaped from the north London prison on 6 November.
Officers from the Metropolitan police arrested Whitlock, 31, in Hackney, east London on Sunday afternoon. Officers from the Metropolitan police arrested Whitlock, 31, in Hackney, east London on Sunday afternoon. A 48-year-old man and a 19-year-old man were also arrested at the address on suspicion of assisting an offender.
A 48-year-old man and a 19-year-old man were also arrested at the address on suspicion of assisting an offender. Baker, 28, was found on Wednesday less than 10 miles away in east London, having spent about three days on the run.
On Wednesday Baker was found less than 10 miles away in east London, having spent about three days on the run. Baker, 28, had been awaiting sentencing after his conviction two weeks ago for stabbing a man 25 times in Dagenham, east London. Whitlock was on remand charged with conspiracy to burgle. It is believed the pair used diamond-tipped cutting equipment to break through their cell bars at Pentonville before scaling an outer perimeter wall. It was rumoured in the prison that they had folded sheets into the shape of a person to make it look like they were asleep in their beds and escaped through a cell window on the fifth floor, using more sheets to lower themselves down.
It is believed that they used diamond-tipped cutting equipment to break through their cell bars at Pentonville before scaling an outer perimeter wall. It was rumoured in the prison that they had folded sheets into the shape of a person to make it look like they were asleep in their beds and escaped through a cell window on the fifth floor, using more sheets to lower themselves down. Baker was found at his sister’s house in Ilford where he was found hiding under a bed. He was taken to hospital for treatment for a broken leg believed to have been suffered in the course of the prison break.
Labour’s Emily Thornberry, the local MP, said last week that the escape was the “final straw” and called for the Victorian-era prison to be closed down. Kelly Baker, 21, appeared at Highbury Corner magistrates court earlier this week accused of harbouring him. She is also accused of buying him hair dye so he could disguise himself. A 33-year-old man and 24-year-old woman were arrested on November 9 and 10 respectively on suspicion of assisting an offender and bailed pending further inquiries, police said.
Baker had been awaiting sentencing after his conviction two weeks ago for stabbing a man 25 times in Dagenham, east London. Whitlock was on remand charged with conspiracy to burgle.
Following their escape, the prison’s independent inspection watchdog said Pentonville was a “soft target” due to the “dilapidated” condition of the Victorian building.
Both prisoners escaped from the category B prison’s G wing where 21-year-old inmate Jamal Mahmoud was fatally stabbed last month in an attack by other prisoners which left two other men injured.
Speaking after the break-out, Emily Thornberry, the local Labour MP, said the escape was the “final straw” and called for the prison to be closed down.
“People don’t seem to be safe inside Pentonville and now it transpires inmates can escape. That is the final straw. If they don’t have control of the place, what is the point of it being there?” she told the Islington Gazette.“People don’t seem to be safe inside Pentonville and now it transpires inmates can escape. That is the final straw. If they don’t have control of the place, what is the point of it being there?” she told the Islington Gazette.
“This was built in 1842 and is totally inappropriate for modern needs. It should have shut a long time ago, and needs to close as soon as possible.” “This was built in 1842 and is totally inappropriate for modern needs. It should have shut a long time ago and needs to close as soon as possible.”
The prison was singled out last year by the former justice secretary Michael Gove as “the most dramatic example of failure” within the prisons estate, putting it in the frame to be closed under the government’s “new for old” scheme.
Steve Gillan, general secretary of the Prison Officers Association, said that the Pentonville break-out was a result of years of under-investment and staff cuts and the focus should fall on the government for breaches in prison security.
The news of the escape broke the morning after a large-scale riot in Bedford prison over inmate anger around understaffing in the prison.
No one was harmed but it prompted fresh fears that prisons are facing unprecedented levels of underfunding and understaffing with inmates left either unsupervised or locked up in cells for long periods of time.
Holloway women’s prison, another Victorian-era prison less than a mile from Pentonville, was shut down earlier this year with many of the female inmates transferred to Downview prison in Surrey.