Escaped prisoner caught getting off bus on busy Edinburgh road

A convicted murderer who went missing from an open prison has been found on an Edinburgh bus. Raymond McCourt , 59, was reported missing at 5.30pm on Tuesday after he failed to return to HMP Castle Huntly near Dundee.

Police said officers located McCourt on London Road in Edinburgh on Friday morning. The prisoner was travelling on a No. 5 bus.



An eyewitness reported him being detained by six plain-clothes police officers when he got off the Lothian Buses service close to the junction with Leith Walk . The Scotsman’s daily newsletter brings the best stories straight to you - subscribe now McCourt had reportedly boarded the bus minutes earlier in the Abbeyhill area. McCourt was detained and will be returned to prison.

Police had warned people not to approach McCourt if they saw him. A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "Officers in Edinburgh have located convicted prisoner, Raymond McCourt. He will be returned to prison.

"Thank you to everyone who assisted us and to those members of the public who contacted us with information." McCourt was jailed for life in 1993 for the murder of shopkeeper Khalid Mahmood in Cambuslang and for shooting a woman and a police officer, and was ordered to serve a minimum of 18 years behind bars. He was released in 2015, but returned to prison after being convicted of theft.

Castle Huntly is Scotland’s only open prison..