A Houdini prisoner with a freak hand used his defo
A Houdini prisoner with a freak hand used his deformity to slip out of his handcuffs and escape the country’s most secure court, the Old Bailey heard today.
(Fri)
Cheeky Roy Sinclair, 23, who was accused of kidnapping and raping a pregnant woman, slipped away from the dock officer he was cuffed to while on remand.
‘He has a deformed or a broken knuckle and managed to make the bulk of his hand smaller then his wrist,’ said prosecutor Mr Philip Bennetts.
But minutes after securing his freedom from Woolwich Magistrates’ Court in southeast London he was caught hiding in a nearby garden.
He even apologised to the prison officer and demonstrated how he performed the brazen escape.
High security Woolwich is the country’s most secure court.
Some of Osama bin Laden’s alleged helpers have passed through the court in recent days.
In August Sinclair was acquitted of kidnapping and raping the 21-year-old who was four months pregnant.
But he was jailed for a total of 20 months today (Fri) after an Old Bailey jury convicted him of keeping the pretty mum-to-be locked up in his flat for three days in February.
The sentence included his punishment for the daring escape – a charge he admitted.
Passing sentence today, the Common Serjeant of London, Judge Peter Beaumont told him: ‘If I was sentencing you for what the girl accused you of, you would be starting a sentence measured in double figures.
‘You consider yourself to be a career criminal.
You are not.
You are an extremely selfish, very immature, work shy bully who takes drugs to indulge whatever whim you want to gratify.
‘When things go wrong for you you blame everyone else but yourself.
You may became a career criminal unless you get a grip on yourself.
‘
During his trial, in August, the victim told jurors how she was tricked into a car on February 9 this year.
Sinclair admitted savagely beating her on route to his flat in Eynsham Drive, Abbey Wood, south east London, where he held her for three days.
‘She was injured by the time they got there and was in so much fear that she was not capable of running away or screaming,’ said the prosecutor.
Sinclair admitted pushing the girl, fully-clothed, into a bath of cold water.
‘She drifted in and out of consciousness and could not tell what day it was’, Mr Bennetts said.
The girl, from Woolwich, managed to escape the house when Sinclair took her to McDonalds in a taxi.
Sinclair, of Shooters Hill Road, Lewisham, had denied kidnapping, false imprisonment, two charges of indecent assault and four counts or rape.
He was acquitted of all charges accept false imprisonment.
It then emerged that Sinclair had escaped from custody on February 23 following his arrest.
While attending a hearing at Woolwich Magistrates Court – supposedly the most secure court in the land – he curled up his hand and slipped out of the cuffs leaving the prison officer stunned.
He was caught minutes later and told police officers: ‘In the circumstance, I had nothing to lose.
‘
Mr Bennetts added: ‘Sinclair then apologised to the female prison officer he had escaped from and then showed her the methodology in slipping the cuffs.
‘
Sinclair also has a string of previous convictions including violence.
He was sentenced to 12 months for false imprisonment, three months for escape and five months for an unspent sentence for car crimes, all to run consecutively.
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