Yahoo News Daniel Gee manhunt over as smirking gangster is caught after absconding from prison
A notorious gangster who escaped from a Teesside prison has been caught.
Daniel Gee was detained yesterday in Wigan by officers from Merseyside Police. The 44-year-old had fled from Kirklevington Prison on Monday, May 27.
He is currently in police custody and will be returned to prison. A Merseyside Police spokesperson said: "We can confirm that Daniel Gee, who had absconded from prison, was detained yesterday (Tuesday, June 25) in Wigan by officers from Merseyside Police.
"Gee absconded from Kirklevington Prison in Stockton-on-Tees on Monday, May 27 and extensive efforts had been ongoing to locate him since. He is currently in police custody and will be returned to prison."
Gee was a key figure in an organised crime group that transformed the Grizedale estate in Liverpool into a round-the-clock drug trading zone.
In 2010, he received an indeterminate sentence for public protection after being caught plotting to purchase firearms and issuing death threats to a young individual who shot him during a dispute on New Year's Day in 2008. Gee was housed in Kirklevington Grange Category D open prison at the time of his escape.
In an effort to find him, Cleveland Police had released CCTV of Gee walking towards James Cook Train Station from the direction of James Cook University Hospital car park at 11.50am on Tuesday, May 28. The force said he had links to the North Yorkshire area including Whitby , Carlisle, St Helens and Merseyside.
Gee, who along with his brother Darren led a violent gang controlling illegal business in north Liverpool, was imprisoned after he planned to arm himself following death threats made to 16 year old gunman Jamie Starkey. Gee was seriously injured after being shot by Starkey outside an Anfield pub in the early hours, with one bullet piercing his stomach and lung before exiting his back.
After the shooting, he was taken to hospital but refused treatment, despite being in severe pain and trauma following Starkey's "murderous and unprovoked" attack. In an October 2009 trial, Gee was found guilty of two counts of threats to kill and another two of blackmail.
The jury could not reach a consensus on the more serious charges of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to possess firearms and ammunition. As his second trial was about to commence, Gee, formerly of Maryport Close, Everton, admitted the second charge. Prosecutor Ian Unsworth KC stated that Gee's thirst for revenge "knew no bounds".
In legal proceedings, Gee was given an indefinite prison term with a minimum of four years before his case could be reviewed by the parole board. This sentence was concurrent with the seven-and-a-half year sentence he was already serving for drugs offences.
Gee's barrister declared during trial that his client was "frankly terrified" at the prospect of an indeterminate sentence and had conspired to arm himself due to his fear of another run-in with the Starkey family. He posited that Gee had been marked because of his notorious family name and confided that his biggest dread was receiving an open-ended sentence because he worried he would never get out.
However, the then Recorder of Liverpool, Judge Henry Globe KC, rebutted: "I am in no doubt that the public must be protected from you in the future. I really do not know when it will be safe to release you."
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