Camille Clarke

A 41-year-old con­vict yes­ter­day braved shark-in­fest­ed wa­ters to es­cape from the Car­rera is­land prison and swam to the main­land. Up to late last night a man­hunt was on for Andy Downy of Gas­par­il­lo. His fel­low in­mate, Trevor Hospedales, 37, of Fyz­abad, who al­so made an at­tempt to es­cape, was cap­tured near Pt Gourde around 1.45 pm. Of­fi­cials said the dis­tance from Car­rera to Pt Gourde is about 800 me­tres.

Up to late last night, of­fi­cers of the West­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force, Coast Guard and Pris­ons Ser­vice and Care­nage Po­lice combed the Ch­aguara­mas and Care­nage com­mu­ni­ties in search of Downy. The Spe­cial An­ti-Crime Unit of Trinidad and To­ba­go he­li­copters were de­ployed over the north­west­ern penin­su­la while po­lice set up road­blocks along the West­ern Main Road, Ch­aguara­mas. Downy was sen­tenced to sev­en years' jail af­ter he was charged with break­ing, en­ter­ing and lar­ce­ny. He was ex­pect­ed to be re­leased in 2014. Hospedales was serv­ing a five-year sen­tence.

In a tele­phone in­ter­view yes­ter­day, Coast Guard pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cer Lt Kirk Jean Bap­tiste said the Coast Guard was as­sist­ing prison of­fi­cers. "Two men es­caped and the Coast Guard re­trieved one pris­on­er from the sea while the oth­er es­caped. There is a land ef­fort be­cause the pris­on­er reached land," Bap­tiste added. She said a fast ves­sel in­ter­cep­tor and fast pa­trol car were be­ing used.