Con is no-show at open nick

Sep 16 2011 by Denis Brown, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

A PRISONER with a violent history failed to return to HMP Castle Huntly after home leave, it emerged yesterday.

Granted temporary release to visit Edinburgh, Samuel Boyle Stewart (47), was a no-show by a 3pm Wednesday deadline to be back at the open nick.

Stewart, who has tattoos on both arms featuring the word “mother” and depictions of a panther and an eagle, has pals and associates in the capital and has previously travelled south to London.

Transferring from HMP Edinburgh to Castle Huntly last January, he is serving a five years, four months and 15 days sentence handed down at the High Court in Edinburgh in August 2009.

He had been convicted of assault to severe injury and permanent disfigurement.

A Tayside Police spokesman said if anyone knew the whereabouts of the fugitive – who is 5’ 8” tall, with medium build, brown hair, green eyes and a fair complexion – they should tip-off police immediately.

Controversy has plagued the Longforgan prison during the past few years following frequent vanishing acts by inmates.

One notorious con, Brian ‘The Hawk’ Martin, once described as the most dangerous man in Britain, surrendered himself to authorities a week after absconding in May 2009.

Opposition politicians demanded to know why Martin, then 51, and serving a 12-year sentence for assault, robbery and firearms offences, had been transferred from a high-security nick to an open prison.

The most recent absconder, convicted murderer Brian Barry McGowan (36), on the run for three weeks in July, blamed the Sunday bus service for his no-show when appearing at Perth Sheriff Court last month.

Jailed for life at High Court in Stirling in November 1994, for the murder of 56-year-old Andrew Robertson in St Ninian’s, Stirling, earlier that year, he has already served 17 years.

But going on the run earned him six months jail time from Sheriff Michael Fletcher.

Transport

Solicitor David Duncan said McGowan was supposed to rendezvous with the Reliance transport at 1.30pm on Sunday, July 17, and had intended to catch the noon bus from Callander.

But he had failed to factor in that it was a Sunday service, and after missing the bus, decided against returning.

McGowan – who had been on home leave to Callander from July 13-17 – was eventually collared in Colchester three weeks later after being spotted on CCTV.

And in May, cops launched a hunt for violent Castle Huntly inmate, Ian Lennox (32), who went AWOL while on home leave.

Lennox had been sentenced in September 2008 at Glasgow High Court to eight years and three months in jail for assault to severe injury and permanent disfigurement.

Contact Tayside Police on 0300 111 2222 or pass information anonymously to Crimestoppers by calling 0800 555 111.