Grudge led prisoner to go on run

A VIOLENT thug who went on the run after being freed for Christmas claimed he wentAWOL because prison chiefs were not nice enough to him.

Raymond Byrne failed to return to Castle Huntly prison near Dundee after being granted a period of temporary home leave during the festive season.

Byrne — serving 54 months for assault to severe injury — told a court yesterday he decided to stay away because of the way he had been treated by prison management.

He said they had denied him the chance to go home to visit his mother shortly before she died and had refused to let him out to attend her funeral a year ago.

And he claimed that with the anniversary of her death approaching at the weekend, he decided to extend his freedom by a week without permission.

Yesterday at Perth Sheriff Court, Byrne had a further eight months added to his sentence when he admitted absconding from the prison by failing to return on December 27.

Depute fiscal John Malpass told the court Byrne — who hails from Ireland — had been freed on Christmas Eve as part of a mass release of inmates from Castle Huntly.

“There was a condition to report to Buchanan Street bus station in Glasgow at 12.45pm on December 27. The transport arrived to uplift him but he failed to attend,” Mr Malpass said. A warrant was issued for Byrne’s arrest and he handed himself in to Strathclyde Police during the early hours of yesterday morning.

Solicitor Rosemar y Scott, defending, said: “This was his first period of home leave. He is from Ireland originally and was going to be staying with friends in Glasgow.

“His position is that when he had been in prison before, his mother had been ill and then died on January 5 last year. “He feels he wasn’t treated well because he was not allowed to visit her or go to the funeral.”

Byrne, who was jailed for 54 months at the High Court in Aberdeen in May 2011, was one of 108 prisoners sent home for the festive season from Castle Huntly prison.

The 47-year-old, who most recently lived in Irvine, Ayrshire, was transferred from Kilmarnock Prison to the open jail in November.

Raymond Byrne.