Convicted heroin dealer Regina Felloni was found in the Phoenix Park in Dublin last night, in need of medical attention, eight hours after she absconded from custody during a driving lesson.
Felloni fled from a fast-food restaurant at the end of a driving lesson shortly after midday yesterday, having evaded her prison officer escort. She had asked to use the toilet at the restaurant in Phibsboro just a few hundred yards from Mountjoy prison.
According to Garda sources, she was found by a member of the public in poor health near the Papal Cross in the Phoenix Park at 8 p.m.
The person who found her phoned for an ambulance and Felloni was taken to Blanchardstown Hospital in the west of the city.
A spokesman for the Prison Service last night said he expected Felloni would be discharged from hospital and re-admitted to Mountjoy this morning.
Earlier, the director general of the Prison Service, Mr Sean Aylward, said Felloni posed no physical threat to the public.
"Any outing of this kind has a degree of risk but a prison system without this degree of risk would have little or no rehabilitation function and society would be the loser in the long term," he added. It is understood Felloni, who was a low-security prisoner, had been on numerous previous excursions away from the prison, including recreational trips with other inmates to a local swimming pool.
Mr Aylward said Felloni had built up a level of trust enabling her to take driving lessons.
The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors had earlier expressed "disappointment" at the escape.
"The matter should be looked into and steps taken with a view to it not happening again," a spokesman said before Felloni was recaptured.
Fine Gael and Labour called on the Minister for Justice to provide an explanation for the escape.
Felloni is serving the final fifth of her prison term and is due for release next May. However, absconding could add up to two years to her sentence.
She pleaded guilty to possession of heroin with intent to supply in 1996 and was sentenced to six years and nine months.