A manhunt is under way in Limerick after a prisoner escaped custody while attending a hospital on Wednesday.
John Moloney (23) of South Claughaun Road, Garryowen, Limerick, has been on the run for 24 hours on Thursday.
He was one year into a 4½ year sentence at Limerick Prison for arson.
Moloney fled from prison officers while attending St John’s Hospital for treatment to one of his hands.
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A Garda manhunt is continuing to find Moloney who it is suspected was picked up in a vehicle by an accomplice.
Two separate investigations are under way into how he escaped.
A statement today from the Irish Prison Service confirmed “that a prisoner has escaped from lawful custody while on escort to St Johns Hospital in Limerick yesterday afternoon”.
“An Garda Síochána were notified immediately and provided with all the relevant information in relation to the prisoner.”
Gardaí have also launched an investigation and are liaising with the prison service.
Prison sources said the IPS investigation was centred around how Moloney managed to escape from the prison officers who accompanied him to hospital.
Moloney was jailed last November after pleading guilty to petrol bombing a house and damaging vehicles with a hurley.
His sentencing hearing at Limerick Circuit Court heard he threatened an injured party, and told them, “I’m going to eradicate you”, before attacking a car with a hurley stick.
“He threatened to ‘kill him and his son’. He was in a frenzy,” prosecuting counsel John O’Sullivan told the court.
The occupants of the house firebombed by Moloney and others were left terrified by the ordeal, the court heard.
