Pentonville prison escapee John Massey recaptured in Kent - The Guardian

A convicted murderer who escaped from prison has been recaptured, the Metropolitan police have announced.

John Massey, 64, scaled the walls of Pentonville prison in London on Wednesday but was arrested by police in Faversham in Kent on Friday.

A police spokesman said Massey was arrested at a house by detectives from the Metropolitan police specialist crime and operations command in an intelligence-led operation. He has been taken into custody at a north London police station. A second man was also arrested on suspicion of aiding and abetting an absconder.

It was Massey's third escape or breach of conditions of liberty in the 36 years since he was sentenced to life for a pub murder in Clapton, east London.

Massey was released on parole in June 2007 after spending the last 18 months of his life sentence in an open prison in Derbyshire preparing for freedom, it is understood. Under his parole terms, he was ordered to live in a bail hostel in Streatham, south London, under a curfew. After several months, he broke his curfew to spend a number of days living with his dying father.

He was recalled to prison but decategorised after two-and-a-half years before being sent to Ford open jail in West Sussex. Massey reportedly walked out of the prison after hearing news that his sister was gravely ill. He was rearrested 10 months later and taken to Pentonville before his latest escape.

The Prison Service said it was still investigating the circumstances of Massey's escape and "would press for the heaviest penalties for those who escape or attempt to escape".