Escaped murderer gets two more years after claiming benefits on the run
A murderer recaptured in Wolverhampton after nine years on the run from prison has been jailed for a further two-and-a-half years.
Hell's Angel David Richards was seized at a rented property in Springhill Lane, Penn.
The 53-year-old fled Sudbury Open Prison on May 17, 2005 after spending 21 years behind bars for killing 16-year-old Michael Groves, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.
The victim was attacked with a knife, hammer and wrench in his West London flat, where Richards had scrawled 'Hell's Angels' on the wall in his blood.
He was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 16 years in December 1984.
Mr Tariq Shakoor, prosecuting, explained: "Sudbury is a Category D prison and he simply walked out."
Richards ran away to Ireland, where he was sentenced to three months for robbery just weeks after his escape without anyone realising he had fled an English prison.
Following his release from jail in Ireland, he made his way back to Wolverhampton where his parents lived. He was found in the city on June 6, shortly after starting to live here. Mr Simon Hanns, defending, said: "Frustration over the fact that he was still in prison five years after completing the minimum term led him to make the foolish decision to walk out of Sudbury. He could not explain why it had taken so long to release him."
Richards, who walked from the cells on crutches, expects to be wheelchair-bound in a short time as a result of an unspecified degenerative condition. He admitted escaping from custody and was given a further 30-month sentence by Judge Philip Parker, QC, who told him: "Any escape is serious and if the person concerned is serving a life sentence it creates alarm and fear.
Police finally swooped to arrest Richards four days after the Met had been tipped off that he was in the West Midlands.
His mother Patricia, 79, said after his arrest: "As far as we were concerned, he was a free man. He was even claiming disability benefits. He was not exactly lying low."
Louise Bull, the sister of the teenager he murdered, said: "Now I want him to serve the time he should have served in the first place. My family got the real life sentence. "
