Manchester armed gang jailbreak
TWO Merseyside men were being hunted today after a prison van escape in rush-hour traffic.
Kirk Bradley and Tony Downes – both on trial at Liverpool Crown Court over an alleged guns and grenades plot – were picked up by a G4S van from Strangeways in Manchester yesterday morning but it was attacked soon after leaving the high-security prison.
A gang of masked men, armed with a sledgehammer and a gun, stopped the van on Trinity Way, which encircles Manchester city centre, at just after 8.30am.
The doors of the van were pulled open and the pair in the back – due in court to continue a trial that has so far run for more than 10 weeks – were taken out.
A guard was also pulled from the van and beaten in the road while another was unharmed.
Downes, 25, from Huyton, but now of no fixed address, and Bradley, 25, of Altfinch Close, Dovecot, were bundled into a waiting Saab that sped off into the morning rush hour traffic.
Police found the getaway car dumped in Islington, Salford, a short time later.
