The Associated Press
LONDON — Police say a dangerous prisoner charged with murder has escaped with the help of three masked men who ambushed the van he was traveling in from prison to court.
West Mercia police said John Anslow escaped Monday morning while being transferred from Hewell prison in Redditch in central England to Stafford Crown Court.
Detective Inspector Jon Marsden says three men wearing balaclava masks smashed the windscreen and windows of the prison van with sledgehammers and punched the driver. They freed Anslow and drove off in their own car. Two other prisoners in the van were not released.
Anslow, 31, was one of five men charged last week with fatally shooting a man in 2010. Marsden said he is considered dangerous and asked people not to approach him directly.