Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
JAILED.. AFTER 13 YEARS ON THE RUN
Relentless PC nails fugitive robber
A FUGITIVE dubbed “the Running Man” after he evaded capture for 13 years has finally been jailed.
Violent robber Ambrose O’neill was sentenced to eight years in his absence after absconding during his trial in 2008.
The thug was recaptured by a relentless policeman who brought him back to the same court, where judge Timothy Spencer, QC, told him: “Your day of reckoning is here.”
He was taken straight to prison to start his original sentence – plus an additional eight months for “deliberately and cynically evading justice”.
His dogged pursuer PC James Gill, who featured in the TV documentary Bodycam Squad, said he had “made it his mission” to catch him. He added: “He was laughing at the police, so we were determined to do everything to find him.”
O’neill, 42, fled after attending just the first day of his trial for attacking a 67-year-old antiques dealer in a bungled robbery at Seagrave, Leics.
He was harboured by criminal pals and changed his appearance repeatedly, leaving “no footprint whatsoever”, Leicester crown court was told.
But PC Gill worked in his free time to hunt him down. The breakthrough came with an anonymous tip-off about where he might be living.
PC Gill, who won Nottinghamshire Police’s “officer of the year” award in 2019, made the arrest last month. The constable said: “It took an incredible amount of work to find him. “You have to make such people know their time on the run is over. This was achieved because I was surrounded by good, experienced, motivated officers.” Chief Supt Rob Griffin, from the same force, said: “This fantastic result is thanks to excellent work and dogged determination by our officers, who went above and beyond in hunting O’neill and getting him arrested.
“Without their great tenacity it wouldn’t have been possible.”