Prisoner found in Ebbw Vale after escaping from Prescoed

Iestyn Raven, 20, who is serving seven years for a brutal stabbing, escaped from Prescoed open prison and young offender institution, near Usk, with another fugitive.

• Sign up to our Crime and Court newsletter to get all the day’s news direct to your inbox

Emma Harris, prosecuting, told how the pair walked out of the jail under the cover of darkness just after midnight on Friday, September 4.

Newport Crown Court heard how Raven had only been moved to the open facility on June 30 to serve the rest of his lengthy sentence there.

• Thug held gun to ex-girlfriend’s head and threatened to kill her mother
• Man broke smoker's jaw outside Gwent Wetherspoons pub with single punch
• Cocaine dealer walks free despite being caught red-handed in pub garden

Miss Harris said the alarm was raised at Prescoed at around 8am and a manhunt was launched for the duo.

She told the court how Raven and his partner had spoken on the telephone the day before about “infidelity between the parties”.

He was found by Gwent Police 36 hours later at a house in Stanfield Street, Cwm, Ebbw Vale, near his father’s home.

The defendant pleaded guilty to escaping from custody.

Julia Cox, mitigating, asked the court to give Raven full credit for his early guilty plea.

She said: “The defendant feared he might never see his father alive again.”

Judge Geraint Walters told him: “You abused the trust placed in you by the prison system.

“I will be amazed if you ever return to an open prison setting now.

“The reason you tell me for leaving was to see close relatives who weren’t well but there seems to have been a dispute between you and your partner.”

The judge added: “One of the concerns today is the taking of Covid into prisons and you ran the risk of causing harm to other prisoners. That’s an act of irresponsibility.”

He was jailed for an extra four months to be served on top of his seven-year custodial sentence.

Raven, formerly of Rhoose, near Barry, was locked up in December 2018 after he admitted wounding with intent following a stabbing on Penarth’s Wordsworth Avenue.

Cardiff Crown Court heard how he assaulted a 17-year-old boy in April 2018 with a baseball bat and a knife while wearing a black balaclava.

The victim suffered a wound to the side of his head, a stab wound to his lower back which resulted in a punctured lung, a shallow stab wound to his upper back and a broken jaw which required surgery.

The complainant and the defendant were known to each other.