A man who dramatically escaped from police custody at Derry Courthouse two years ago and evaded the PSNI over Christmas, has been granted compassionate bail to spend the festive period with his family.
Dean Beattie, 24, of Glenowen Park, is currently charged with twenty-five offences in relation to seven different cases. They range from motoring offences to burglary, theft and drugs charges.
All of the offences are alleged to have taken place between June 7 and August 23 of this year.
On December 23, 2015, the 22-year-old was due to appear at Derry Courthouse charged with robbery, assault and firearms offences.
But as he was being transferred to court he managed to escape from the officer escorting him and scaled two fences, one of them ten feet high.
He then ran through the turnstile and made off down Bishop Street while the police officer was left locked inside, unable to chase him.
The incident was caught on camera by UTV who were filming outside at the time (pictured above).
Beattie remained at large for six days before he was found in a house in the city and arrested. He was further charged with escaping from lawful custody and brought before the court on December 30, 2015.
Today, December 18, 2017, the court was told that Beattie had recently been granted High Court bail to reside at the Simon Community, however, there was an issue with someone acting as a surety and he couldn’t ‘perfect it’.
Therefore, defence solicitor Seamus Quigley lodged a compassionate bail application to allow the 24-year-old ‘to spend his first Christmas in a couple with his family’.
District Judge Oonagh Mullan granted Beattie bail and his mother must act as a surety to the value of £750.
He must be collected from prison by either his mother or grandfather on December 23 no later than 9am, will reside at his grandfather’s address, and must be returned to Maghaberry on December 28 by 5pm.
Bail conditions include a curfew of 9pm-7am, he was ordered to only be in the company of his mother and grandfather, and only in a motor vehicle with those two.
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