VIDEO shows how convicted sex offender scaled HMP Peterborough wall and hid from guards to escape prison

At about 6.05pm on Friday, 26 January, Gintautas Urbonas, 52, escaped from HMP Peterborough by running ahead of a group being escorted from the gym and climbing the prison wall.

Urbonas, who was less than one year into a 12-year sentence for the attempted rape of a child and child abduction, had been working out and was being escorted back to his wing when he jogged ahead of the group.

CCTV footage showed him start to scale the prison wall “like Spiderman”, according to a police statement, climbing a closed gated door up a pipe onto a light, over a razor wire onto a satellite dish which had pigeon spikes on it, and then onto the roof of the prison – taking him just 26 seconds.

He then went along the roof, down onto a lower wall and dropped to the ground before running off through the staff car park.

A manhunt was launched by police, lasting two days before Urbonas was captured following an anonymous call to police stating he was at a house in Newark Avenue, Peterborough. When he was arrested Urbonas told officers it was him who had contacted them.

In interview, Urbonas made a full and frank confession, admitting he had been thinking about escaping for a while, and how he could attract the attention of the courts or police to the fact he had been jailed for 12 years.

He told officers how after he had been sentenced he started to think about escaping. He got hand towels from the gym and made them into a short rope to help him scale the wall. He said he didn’t know if he would be successful in escaping but took a chance.

Following a public appeal to locate him, a member of the public called police saying she recognised the man as someone who had approached her asking to borrow her mobile phone.

Urbonas told officers in interview how he tried to get hold of some ‘associates’ but couldn’t, so the next day wanted to go back to prison.

He said he had no intention of staying out and had no plans to leave the country, he just wanted to “get people interested” in him.

Yesterday (Tuesday, 27 February), Urbonas pleaded guilty to escaping lawful custody at Cambridge Crown Court and was sentenced to 16 months in prison, to run consecutively to the third-way mark of his current sentence, meaning it will now be eight years before he will eligible for parole.

Detective Constable Rob Sansom said: “The pressure that was applied through the manhunt for Urbonas left him no choice but to hand himself in.

“I would like to thank members of the public who got behind our appeal to locate Urbonas – the widespread coverage of his manhunt ensured it was not long before he was back behind bars.”