The prime suspect in the case of Scottish woman Lisa Brown, feared murdered in Spain, has escaped from jail and her family say he could be headed back to Spain.
Dean Woods was on day release on Saturday from HM Prison Sudbury in Derbyshire, but he did not return.
The 40-year-old luxury yacht dealer was two years into a 12-year jail sentence for his involvement in a £8 million cocaine ring.
Woods, who also uses the alias Simon Corner, was quizzed by police on the Costa del Sol over the 2015 disappearance of his ex-partner Lisa Brown.
The mother-of-one from Dumbarton in Scotland, then aged 32, was reported missing on November 9 after failing to collect her eight-year-old son from school in Guadiaro, where she lived.
She had been living in Spain since she was 18 and had just started a new job in Gibraltar for an online betting company at the time she vanished.
Brown’s sister Helen told the Olive Press that Spain could be one of a few locations he could be on the run to.
“He’s got friends out there and it’s a place he knows very well,” she said on Wednesday.
“We’re in shock about this latest development and starting to get very angry that this nightmare just continues.”
Derbyshire police confirmed Woods’ escape from jail and appealed to the public for any information on the missing convict.
“Dean Woods did not return after a period of day release from the open prison on Saturday 19 November,” a spokesperson said.
Officers turned their attention to the man from Liverpool after Brown went missing, but couldn’t find him.
There was a European Arrest Warrant out for Woods, at the same time police were probing the possibility that Brown may have been abducted and taken out to sea, possibly en route to Ibiza or Thailand.
The Olive Press revealed at the time Woods had been living on a boat called, Rosa of London, in La Linea’s Alcaidesa marina, where Brown was a ‘regular visitor’.
Woods was finally arrested at Heathrow Airport in London in April 2018, but weeks later the case against him was shelved in Spain.
Judge Garcia Ramila ruled: “This court has serious doubts that Simon Corner is the person responsible for the crimes of homicide or unlawful detention being investigated”.
Woods denied any involvement in Brown’s disappearance.
Six months later, in October 2018, he was extradited to Spain after the case was reopened.
Three judges at a higher provincial court in Cadiz ordered a court in San Roque, which led the initial investigation, to reopen the case following a direction that the Liverpudlian’s mobile phone should be analysed.
But that probe also petered out, and a few weeks later in November 2018, Woods got involved in a £8 million cocaine operation in Liverpool.
Brown had been in a relationship with Woods for a few months, while her son’s father Tony Tomillero lived a short 20 mile drive away in Spain.
After seven years Brown’s sister Jordan said loved ones would ‘stop at nothing’ to get justice for her.
“She deserves justice, she deserves to know her life meant something,” her sister told the Olive Press.
Woods is about 5ft 11 in height, of medium build with short brown hair and brown eyes, and speaks with a Liverpool accent.
Anyone who has any information can email Olive Press reporter, anthony@theolivepress.es
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