Fugitive child killer on CCTV
Gardai hunt rapist after getting Dublin train
THIS is the twisted child killer who is still believed to be on the run in Ireland.
Detectives launched a manhunt after John Clifford, 56, boarded the Dublin-bound Enterprise train from the North at the weekend.
Gardai are helping the PSNI after it released a CCTV image of the murderer at Belfast’s Lanyon Place station on Sunday.
Police said Clifford, who raped and murdered his niece, got on the cross-border train at 1.05pm.
It stops in a number of towns including Portadown, Newry, Dundalk and Drogheda before reaching Dublin Connolly.
A Garda spokesman said the force do not go into detail about probes on named individuals but added: “Gardai are assisting the PSNI in relation to their investigation.”
Clifford was jailed in 1989 for killing eight-year-old Sue Ellen Clifford, whose body was later found by disused railway tracks near her home on the outskirts of North Belfast. The pervert, who was last seen using his mobility scooter, had been on day release from Burren House on the Crumlin Road in Belfast but did not return.
The “working out unit” takes in up to 22 felons getting ready to leave jail life and is a satellite of Maghaberry prison.
The Irish Mirror asked the Department for Justice if Clifford was released alone, if he made his appointment, when the alarm was raised and if this was his first time in public?
The Northern Ireland Prison Service said: “Should a prisoner become unlawfully at large, the matter is reported to the police for investigation. We do not comment on individual cases.”
PSNI Det Insp Michael Mcdonnell has thanked “members of the public who have contacted us with information” so far.
He added: “We have located the distinctive mobility scooter John was using and, through the course of our inquiries, believe he boarded a train at 13.05 at Lanyon Place train station [formerly known as Central Station] on Sunday.
“He was wearing a dark-coloured beanie-style hat, with glasses and a dark heavy coat and was carrying a dark-coloured backpack.
“He is 1.75m tall with green eyes and fair hair. He is of medium build with a fresh complexion.
“I would again appeal to anyone who may have seen him or who may have information about his whereabouts to contact us immediately.
“I would also appeal directly to John to hand himself in.”
Sue Ellen’s sister Deborah Adair said on Tuesday she is convinced Clifford will kill again.
It was reported she said he wasn’t tagged before he disappeared and wasn’t being watched and will
strike again.