Authorities yet again allow multiple offender Sean Tate to escape - public urged to be on the lookout for him

Sean Tate is a kidnapper with weapons convictions who is aged 47, and had been serving a sentence at HMP Magilligan.

On Friday police issued a call for people to help find him, saying he had escaped even though he was being escorted.

His offences are numerous: the Department of Justice website lists them as follows –

Robbery; Possession of an offensive weapon with intent to commit an indictable offence; Common assault; Kidnapping; Possession of a firearm or imitation firearm with intent to cause fear; Possessing offensive weapon in public place; Criminal damage; Aggravated vehicle taking causing damage; Dangerous driving, Aggravated burglary and stealing; Aggravated vehicle taking; And breach of a custody probation order.

What the police and the Department of Justice didn’t say was that he has run away before.

Back in 2018 the News Letter revealed that he was one of a handful of convicts who had gone on-the-run at more or less the same time.

He had been granted compassionate temporary release, but fled in January of that year.

He was later returned to custody.

News of his renewed disappearance comes after the News Letter revealed earlier this month that murder convict Thomas McCabe had been allowed to vanish for the seventh time.

McCabe was convicted in 1990 of murdering Richard Hunt, the 18-year-old cousin of his 19-year-old girlfriend at her flat in England.

The victim had been unknown to McCabe, who was 26 at the time.

McCabe had drunkenly entered the flat and the teenager just happened to be there; McCabe assumed – for no reason – that he must be having an affair with his girlfriend, and beat him eight times in the face and head with a two-foot-long metal scaffolding pole, before threatening the lives of his girlfriend and her baby if they talked to police.

He vanished in August of this year and remains at large.

Tate is described as 1.78m (5ft 9in), slim, pale, with brown eyes and hair, and scars on his chest, mid-back and right knee.

Tate vanished while visiting a property in the Antrim Road area of north Belfast.

He was last seen wearing grey and blue trainers with a fluorescent swoosh, navy blue jeans, grey fleece and black polo shirt, and last spotted in the Salisbury Avenue area shortly before 11:40am on Friday.

Police are appealing to anyone who has seen Tate, or who knows of his whereabouts not to approach him but to contact police on 101 quoting reference number 656 27/10/23.

They have also called on him to directly hand himself in.

Alternatively, information can also be provided to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 which is 100% anonymous.