Escaped prisoner back behind bars (From Leigh Journal)

Leigh post office robber back behind bars after prison escape

1:10pm Monday 21st January 2013 in News

A CONVICTED armed robber who went on the run from prison is back behind bars.

Michael Sharrock,was jailed for ten years in 2006 for three violent armed robberies carried out at two post offices in Leigh and St Helens and attacking a security guard at Astley.

His sentence was later altered by the Court of Appeal to an indeterminate sentence for public protection with a minimum of five years.

Liverpool Crown Court heard on Friday that on December 28 last year while serving time at HMP Kirkham in Lancashire Sharrock walked out in an effort to buy some alcohol.

He ‘panicked’ when he thought he was being followed by a prison officer and went to his home on Leigh Road, Leigh, where he was found on January 6, said Karen Brooks, prosecuting.

Sharrock pleaded guilty to escaping from custody.

Judge Thomas Teague QC told him: “You have been found to be a danger to the public and an escape by someone in that position is serious.

“You went out to buy alcohol but ended up going home where you were arrested.”

The judge sentenced him to six months imprisonment to run consecutively to his current indeterminate sentence.

Ben Jones, defending, said that Sharrock, who has 37 convictions for 105 offences, had been in the grip of a heroin addiction when he committed the robberies.