Liam Lawlor was picked up in a gardener's van yesterday. The camera-shy TD sat in the back and so managed to slip, almost unnoticed, out of Mountjoy jail.
Having been thwarted last week when Mr Lawlor entered the prison to begin his week-long sentence through the entrance at St Patrick's Institution, journalists, cameramen and photographers had studied every possible exit in preparation for yesterday's release.
While some 30 members of the media had gathered at the main gate, there were about 12 at the training unit exit, 10 at the back gate and up to 20 massed outside the gate of St Patrick's. At 1.55 p.m. a BMW car, identified as belonging to Mr Lawlor, arrived at the main gate, its driver stopping to say: "I am here to pick up Mr Lawlor."
Then came word from the training unit gate that Mr Lawlor's gardener had arrived, through the back gate, driving the Lawlor garden van - a blue Opel. About five minutes later, a convoy of three vans left through the main gate. A white security van was followed by a navy blue Opel Combo van, believed to have contained Mr Lawlor.
The prison governor, Mr John Lonergan, confirmed he had left "in his own van".
Mobile phones rang amid despondent mutterings. "I knew he'd give us the slip again," said one journalist. Others said it was a "disgrace" Mr Lawlor had apparently been assisted by the prison authorities in avoiding the press.
Asked about this, the director general of the Prison Service, Mr Sean Aylward, cited rule number 17 in the 1947 Prison Rules: "A prisoner shall be exposed to public view as little as possible while being removed to or from prison. In order to avoid exposure while passing through the public streets he shall, if necessary, be conveyed in a closed vehicle."
