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Life-sentence prisoner calls Dublin jail from pub to come pick him up

Drunken sex beast phones Arbour Hill from bar while he’s on temporary release

Today at 11:00

Drunken sex beast phones Arbour Hill from bar while he’s on temporary release

Today at 11:00

One of Ireland’s longest-serving life prisoners cut short a taste a freedom after phoning a prison to get collected from a pub.

Mark Lawlor got a life sentence in 1995 for the horrific murder and sexual assault of 57-year-old Rose Farrelly at her Harold’s Cross home two years earlier.

He recently went drinking in a pub after being allowed temporary release from Arbour Hill in Dublin’s north inner city, according to sources.

He later called the prison asking to be brought back.

As a trusted prisoner, Lawlor has been working as a cleaner in Arbour Hill, where he is continuing to serve his time.

However, after his recent pub escapade he is also a suspect over hiding empty wine bottles found in an area at the prison where he worked, according to Sunday World sources.

Drinking alcohol behind bars is strictly forbidden and in Arbour Hill would be regarded as unusual where inmates are regarded as being settled and co-operative with staff.

Now aged 50, Lawlor has been in prison most of his life, gathering criminal convictions since he was just 14 years old.

People who get a life sentence remain under licence if they are released from prison and can be re-called if they break any conditions or get into trouble again.

Despite his relatively young age, Lawlor is now one of Ireland’s longest-serving prisoners and has been in custody since 1993.

At the time his 44-day trial set a record for the length it took and was the first murder trial where DNA evidence was admitted.

The following year he got another nine-year sentence for burglary and five years for sexual assault committed during the murder of Ms Farrelly.

He had been out of prison for just two weeks when he carried out the horrific murder of the disabled woman.

The trial was told Ms Farrelly was a deeply religious woman who did not marry and lived alone.

She had suffered a stroke some years before her death and was severely disabled as a result.

State Pathologist Dr John Harbison said she had died from asphyxia due to a combination of strangulation and suffocation.

Det Insp Anthony Brislane, who was in charge of the investigation, gave evidence that Lawlor had convictions dating back to 1987, when he was 14.

He absconded to England, where he was jailed for burglary and was extradited back to Ireland in 1991.

The officer explained Lawlor was jailed for three years in 1992 but was then freed on bail pending a review of his sentence when he killed Ms Farrelly

Lawlor’s defence counsel said he had abused drugs and alcohol and that “the real tragedy is that when he came into the prison system there was nowhere he could be taken and he was just put back on the streets”.

The trial judge told Lawlor he had heard “with sadness” of his background but none of that could excuse “the brazen decision to commit violent crime” within a short period of his release.

He said that had there been a suitable facility to detain Lawlor when he committed his previous crimes “the unfortunate Ms Rose Farrelly might well be alive yesterday”.

Lawlor lost an appeal against his conviction in 2001.

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