A convicted killer faked illness in order to stage a daring escape from prison.
Shaun Walmsley fled from HMP Liverpool during a hospital visit in February last year which sparked a Europe-wide manhunt which lasted for 18 months.
The 29-year-old broke away when prison staff were confronted by two men wielding a knife and an Uzi sub machine gun as he was leaving Aintree Hospital.
Walmsley, serving a life sentence for the 2014 murder of Anthony Duffy, was eventually captured when police stopped a car in Leeds on August 21 this year.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that the former Walton resident deliberately lost weight to feign a bowel problem in order to make ‘unnecessary’ hospital visits.
Officers accompanying Walmsley to Aintree Hospital were ordered to release him from his handcuffs before making a get-away in an ambushed private hire taxi.
During the course of his escape, Walmsley grew both his hair and a beard in order to avoid capture, which eventually took place in the Harehills area of Leeds.
Upon his arrest, the court heard told the armed officers, ‘Good job boys’.
Walmsley admitted a single charge of escaping lawful custody on Tuesday and was given an eight-year sentence which will run alongside his existing conviction.
In sentencing, Judge Goldstone told him: “Lest you think that this sentence is not going to make any difference to your ultimate release date, if ever and whenever that may be, you could not be more wrong.
“It would be an insult to society and to the police who have recaptured you to order this sentence to run concurrently with your life sentence, however long the minimum term may be.
“It would also send out entirely the wrong message to those who are serving long sentences and might wish to chance their luck by trying to escape.”