Life in Strangeways--From Riots to Redemption, My 32 Years Behind Bars by Alan Lord

Author:Alan Lord [Alan Lord and Anita Armstrong]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784186319
Publisher: John Blake Publishing
Published: 2015-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

SECOND ESCAPE

The second time I escaped was pure opportunism. It was an opportunity placed right in front of me while we were on trial at the crown court in Manchester.

Our cell doors were left open in between the hearings because they didn’t want us locked up all the time, in case it caused any disturbances. One day, while in the recess area talking to an African inmate called Mark Azzopardi, I came across a way out. While Azzopardi was mopping the floor, he lifted the mop up and it happened to hit the top of the ceiling, which was quite low. The sound that came back was very hollow.

We looked at each other. I took the stick off him, went into a toilet cubicle and hit the ceiling. This time the stick went right the way through. I was trying to work out where the recess would lead to if we made a hole big enough to get through. It was risky but we had to try.

We went into the toilet and locked the door behind us. We started hitting the ceiling and it went through very easily. Azzopardi put his head through the hole once we’d made the hole big enough.

‘It’s huge up here, Al!’ he told me.

He jumped down and I made the hole big enough for him to get up and take a look around. He climbed up and along, shouting down to me that it went all the way to the bottom end of the court. He was up there for a few minutes. When he came down, he said there was a way out through the last courtroom.

The adrenalin was kicking in at the prospect of getting out. Deep down, I knew I was going to be stitched up in the second trial, so I wanted to try to get out of the country. I had nothing to lose.

We covered the hole with some white toilet paper and went back to the cells. We told the lads what we’d found, but, unfortunately, some had to be fall guys and stay behind. If we all went the police would get onto it straight away because there’d be no noise. It was an okay atmosphere in there, quite relaxed sometimes though a bit monotonous. As long as there was some banter and laughter going on, they wouldn’t suspect anything. The police just sat in their office during the day and let us get on with it until it was time for us to go back up to the dock for trial.

The court usually finished around 4 pm and then the last hour was spent with the legal team. We decided we’d go straight after we’d finished for the day. There were just five of us who were going to try to get out – Azzopardi, John Murray, Tony Bush, Barry Morton and me. We went down to the recess area and I started hitting at the ceiling in the cubicle, where we’d made the hole.

We all got through and crawled across the ceiling to the end of Court Four.

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