Violent fugitive is recaptured

Oct 6 2006 By Steve Johnson, Birmingham Mail

A "VIOLENT and dangerous" fugitive was back behind bars today after nine days on the run.

Armed police acting on a tip-off swooped on a house in Smethwick last night and arrested 24-year-old Craig Hickinbottom, who was jailed for five years in 2002 for two armed robberies in Dudley.

He had been on the loose since last Wednesday when security staff returning him to prison after a court hearing were ambushed by hooded gunmen.

Officers stormed the house at about 6pm yesterday and Hickinbottom, from Bromsgrove, whose mother and partner both live in Oldbury, was back behind bars today at Blakenhurst Prison, near Redditch.

A nationwide search had been launched after he was sprung by two men who used a firearm to threaten staff in a security van taking him back to prison after he appeared before Redditch magistrates.

He had appeared in court on a charge of driving while disqualified and was the sole occupant of the Reliance prison van which was forced to a halt by an Audi shortly after 1 pm, less than 400 yards away from the jail, in Hewell Lane. No shots were fired and the guards were unhurt.

Hickinbottom had been released from prison in June but was recalled just a few days later.

His mother Tracey Hickin-bottom, who lives in Oldbury, said after he went on the run that she believed he had been murdered or kidnapped.

His partner Lisa Hodgetts, aged 22, also lives in Oldbury with the couple's three-year-old son Skyla.

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