1983 escape IRIS
24/07/2008
15:01
Page 53
IRIS
THE GREATEST ESCAPE
• Robert ‘Goose’ Russell leaving court during his extradition battle
by British soldiers as he crossed a field in darkness, Gary Roberts from Belfast was released in August 1989 after serving 14 years of an SOSP sentence.
ROBERT RUSSELL Arrested in 1980 and framed for something he had no involvement in, Robert ‘Goose’ Russell from Ballymurphy in West Belfast was serving a 20-year sentence at the time of the escape. He had appealed the verdict of his trial and had been given a retrial, but the 20-year sentence was upheld. He lodged a second appeal. In the H-Blocks, Larry Marley asked him if he was interested in escaping and Russell began to help in gathering intelligence, yet with no idea at that stage of the emerging plan. Part of the group who hid under the floorboards, ‘Goose’ enjoyed only eight months of relative freedom before being recaptured
in Dublin on 26 May 1984 and imprisoned in Portlaoise awaiting extradition. Feeling he had little to lose, Russell took part in the 1985 escape bid from Portlaoise: “I was lying in a cell when the boys came in and said there’s an escape on. I said ‘no problem’.” ‘Goose’ Russell was sentenced to three years for his involvement in that escape before being extradited back to the Six Counties in 1988, following a ruling by the 26 County Supreme Court that his ‘offence’ did not merit political exemption. Ironically, his second appeal on the original 1980 charges was still lodged, and this time his original conviction was overturned. He still had a five-year sentence to serve for his part in the 1983 escape, but by the time of his appeal judgement, he had served all but three weeks of this. Despite the fact that Russell had effectively served more than eleven years in jails as a result of an ‘offence’ he did not commit, the
British authorities made him serve that time out before his final release in 1992.
JOE SIMPSON Recaptured in the River Lagan a short time after the escape, Joe Simpson from Belfast was released in 1993 after serving 13 years.
JIM SMYTH Having made his escape along with Tony Kelly, Jim Smyth from Belfast eventually made his way to the USA, where he married and settled in the Sunset district of San Francisco, working as a painter and decorator. Smyth had been originally arrested in 1976 and at his trial in 1978 was sentenced to 20 years. On 3 June 1992, the same day as Barry Artt’s arrest, Jim Smyth was arrested by the FBI and charged with passport violation offences. He was held in the Federal Detention Centre at Pleasanton in California 53