Jail escapee was convicted rapist

Police are searching for Mark Thomas Clarke

A life-sentence prisoner who is on the run in Northern Ireland had previously been convicted of rape.

Mark Thomas Clarke, 40, was attending a pre-release training course at Nutts Corner, County Antrim, when he absconded on Tuesday.

Clarke was jailed in 1996 for kidnapping and attempted rape and given a minimum nine-and-a-half year tariff.

Those offences happened 15 months after he was freed early from a nine-year sentence for rape.

He had served four and a half years.

Clarke was in the third stage of a pre-release programme monitored by the Prison Service when he fled.

Chairman of the Prison Officers' Association Finlay Spratt said he believed Clarke would be caught.

Mr Spratt said: "When he is eventually arrested he will then be returned to a closed facility, he will be returned back to Maghaberry.

"All this prisoner has managed to do is actually jeopardise his release.

"He has put back his release, he has actually broken trust that was placed in him by the parole board which recommended that he should be facilitated in this scheme."

Clarke had recently progressed to "living in the community", under Prison Service supervision.

A Prison Service statement said: "The protection of the public is paramount and the Prison Service are working closely with our colleagues in the Police Service of Northern Ireland to apprehend the prisoner."

Three other prisoners are currently at large in Northern Ireland, according to the Prison Service website.