'Dangerous' British prisoner escapes high-security Portuguese jail with four others using handmade rope
9 September 2024, 08:35
A British prisoner described as "very dangerous" is among five inmates who have escaped from a high-security jail in Portugal.
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Mark Cameron Roscaleer, 39, had been serving nine years for kidnap and robbery at the complex north of Lisbon.
Authorities say the five men had "external help" from accomplices who used a ladder to help get them out.
Luís Neves, the director of the Portuguese judicial police, said four of the five escapees were ‘dangerous’ men who ‘will do anything to remain free’.
The men were serving sentences for crimes including violent robbery, drug trafficking and organised crime.
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Authorities said the men received ‘external help’ to escape.
The men were given a ladder that ‘allowed the inmates to scale the wall.’
Frederico Morais, president of Portugal’s national prison guards’ union, said: “They managed to jump a fence because there are no guards to watch the perimeter... put the ladder against the wall and, from there, with a handmade rope, they climbed over the wall.”
Mr Neves said the escape was a “complex operation by organised criminals with financial capacity [with] everything thought out down to the smallest detail”.
The other inmates who escaped are Fábio Fernandes Santos Loureiro, a 33-year-old Portuguese man, Rodolf José Lohrmann, a 59-year-old Argentinian, and 40-year-old Shergili Farjiani, originally from Georgia and who is considered the least dangerous of the gang.
