Suffolk: Prisoner Sentenced After Escape Attempt

8 May 2013, 10:57 | Updated: 8 May 2013, 11:07

A man who escaped from a prison in Suffolk's been sentenced for threatening police with a gun.

Andrew Farndon escaped from a prison van in Suffolk in January last year and travelled to Scotland.

Police traced him to New Cumnock in East Ayrshire but when two officers approached him he brandished a blank-firing pistol and demanded their car keys.

He was eventually apprehended by the officers and taken to Kilmarnock police station.

At the High Court in Glasgow on Tuesday, he admitted using an imitation gun in an attempt to rob the officers.

The 27-year-old also admitted three other firearms charges and was sentenced to five years and three months by Lord Matthews.

On January 25 last year, Farndon was being taken from Highpoint jail in Stradishall, Suffolk, to hospital in nearby Bury St Edmunds for treatment to a knife wound when he escaped.

His former jailmate Garry Cowan was found guilty in December of holding up the prison van at gunpoint 15 days after being released from prison.

Farndon was serving an indeterminate sentence for public protection after fracturing a victim's skull in a hammer attack.

His escape sparked a nationwide manhunt.