Man (20) jailed for scaling wall to escape Garda custody

Declan Brennan

A young man who bounded a six-foot wall in order to escape from custody has been jailed for two years and six months.

On April 23rd last year, Dublin man Michael McGinley (20) was refused bail at Balbriggan District Court after he appeared on a charge of unlawful possession of a car which had been stolen from Co Kerry.

The defendant was remanded into custody and taken to Balbriggan Garda Station.

McGinley, who has over 60 previous convictions, asked to be taken out for a cigarette, and two gardaí accompanied him to the rear yard of the station.

This car park area has a six-foot perimeter wall and an electronic security gate and is where prisoners are normally brought for cigarettes, Garda Eoin O’Reilly testified. The court heard that McGinley was not handcuffed, and there was an element of trust.

When it came time to leave the yard, one garda turned her back to open the security gate, and McGinley ran at speed towards the yard wall. He cleared the wall on his first attempt, Gda O'Reilly told the court.

Despite gardaí pursuing him in a patrol car alongside an air support unit, McGinley could not be located. He turned up two months later while staying at an Airbnb in Athboy, Co Meath.

A local garda arrested him on June 19th, 2025, and he was charged with escape from lawful custody. He has been in custody since then.

McGinley of Ringfort Avenue, Balrothery, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to escaping from lawful custody.

He also pleaded guilty to unlawful use of a vehicle without the consent of the owner on April 21st, 2025. The court heard the owner of the Hyundai had parked the car at his home in Co Kerry on November 19th and went to bed.

He woke up the next day to find the car gone. A number of days later, gardaí on patrol in Balbriggan saw McGinley driving the stolen car and arrested McGinley at his home.

He has previous convictions for burglary, theft and taking a car without the consent of the owner and was aged 19 at the time of these offences.

Gda O’Reilly agreed with Luke O’Higgins, defending, that his client comes across as particularly immature and that his escape attempt was unplanned and opportunistic. He also accepted that McGinley didn't use any violence or make any threats during the escape.

He agreed that in relation to the stolen car, it is not the prosecution's case that he committed the burglary but only that he was present in the stolen vehicle.

Counsel told the court that his client was “genuinely remorseful” about his actions. He said McGinley left school at 14 and began taking drugs and building up drug debts with led to committing crimes to pay these off.

Imposing a sentence on Friday, Judge Orla Crowe said while McGinley’s escape from lawful custody was not pre-planned or sophisticated, he managed to hide for a significant period of time before he was apprehended.

She noted McGinley is “very young” and there “must be some hope for him in relation to rehabilitation”.

She imposed a global sentence of three years, with the final six months suspended on strict conditions.

The judge directed McGinley to undergo 12 months of probation supervision following his release from prison to assist with his re-entry into society and backdated the sentence to June 19th, 2025, when he went into custody.