A violent convict was still on the run yesterday after pulling off a daring daylight escape from Wandsworth Prison on Monday afternoon.

Police scrambled a helicopter to join the search for Eamon Donaghue, 27, who is believed to have ditched his prisoner's clothes for a prison officer's uniform he found while cleaning the officers' mess hall.

Donaghue was described as a low-security inmate at the Category B jail, where an investigation will be held into how the security breach happened.

Police were warning the public not to approach him.

The 5ft 8in white Irishman, who is of medium build with green eyes and brown hair, was jailed in 2001 for three and a half years after stealing a car and then using it to attack a police officer.

Combing

Police confirmed they were combing the local area after the alarm was raised at 1.30pm, but it was believed their net was cast even wider to include the search of an address in Wimbledon, where Donaghue is thought to have relatives, and another in Streatham.

Police confirmed yesterday that their efforts had so far drawn a blank.

A police spokesman warned any suspicious members of the public not to hesitate: "If they think they have seen him or recognised his description, or if they have information about his whereabouts, they should call 999."

Prison authorities labelled Donaghue an absconder rather than an escapee, because he was officially allowed out of the prison on licence in order to carry out the cleaning work.

But his flight was more audacious than that of a regular licensed prisoner who simply fails to return from an outside appointment, as he had to make his escape unnoticed from the officers' mess just outside the prison walls.

Breach

The Prison Service said all prisoners on temporary licence are put through a risk assessment, so Donaghue's escape marks a serious breach of trust.

Donaghue, who was still on the run as the News went to press, is the first prisoner to escape or abscond from Wandsworth in more than two years.

May 2, 2003 13:00