Man jailed over hit and run incident in which a child was injured had been on the run for over 20 years

Appearing today at Antrim Crown Court by videolink from prison, 52-year-old Michael Teelin entered a guilty plea to the single charge against him that he was unlawfully at large from HMP Magilligan from 7 August 2000.

None of the facts of the case were heard today but previously a police officer outlined how Teelin, with an address at Claremont Court in Blackpool, had been handed a four year sentence in 1999 for causing grievous bodily injury by dangerous driving arising from a hit and run road traffic collision in Crossmaglen when a child was injured.

He had been granted a two day temporary release over his birthday in August 2000 but he failed to surrender himself back into custody and was not found again until the PSNI received an alert that he was in Preston prison.

Teelin was brought back to Northern Ireland late last year and although he claimed the PSNI had the wrong man, that his name was actually Felix and that it was his deceased brother Michael they were looking for, the officer said fingerprints taken from the defendant matched those of the man who went on the run 23 years ago.

“He couldn’t provide any explanation why his fingerprints are the same,” she told the court and by his guilty plea today, Teelin has abandoned those claims.

Defence counsel Thomas McKeever suggested that with a year still left to serve in jail, the court could deal with the case without the need for a pre-sentence report from probation but Judge Alistair Devlin said he had dealt with a similar case recently where the PSR had been “quite informative.”

“So I think I will get a PSR,” concluded the judge who remanded Teelin back into custody and adjourned the case to 15 march.