AN East Lancashire murderer who escaped from prison is to be sent back to the UK after Dublin’s High Court ordered his extradition.

Anthony Craig was sentenced to life in prison for killing accountant Samlesbury John Kirby, in Blackburn’s Corporation Park in 1973 by hitting him repeatedly with a brick.

The convicted killer, formerly of Kendal Street, served 28 years of his sentence before escaping from prison and fleeing to Ireland, where he lived in counties Cork and Leitrim.

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Mr Justice John Edwards has now ruled that Craig, 66, should be surrendered to the UK authorities.

Craig walked out of HMP Sudbury in Derbyshire and failed to return.

The former labourer was arrested by Irish police in Rathcoole, South Dublin, in February 2013 and has been fighting extradition ever since.

Mr Kirby’s murder sent shockwaves through the Blackburn community.

The 32-year-old, of Whalley Road, was found in a pool of blood by a dog walker near Queen Elizabeth Grammar School on the morning of November 4 prompting a massive manhunt.

After six days of frantically combing the park for clues, with police dogs and all five major Lancashire Task Forces involved, Craig was arrested by detectives.

It was alleged that Mr Kirby was killed after Craig followed him to the park under the pretence they were going to have sex. Police believed Craig really wanted to rob Mr Kirby, who was gay.

After battering him to death, Craig stole just 2p.

He pleaded not guilty to murder claiming self defence but was found guilty following a six-day trial.

Craig, who had previous convictions for burglary and the possession of offensive weapons, was jailed for life. In February 1995, Craig went on-the-run for a month after absconding from prison in HMP Haverigg, Cumbria, to visit his sick brother.

He handed himself over to police in Manchester, and remained behind bars until he fled prison again in 2002. He then started a new life for himself in Ireland.

Lawyers for Craig had argued at the High Court in Dublin that his case was similar to that of Michael Anthony Balmer, 62, another convicted murderer who went to Ireland in 2012 following his conditional release from UK prison a year earlier.

Balmer, from Cornwall, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1984 for attacking and killing a woman in her home on the evening of July 28 1983 in Devon.

Both had argued that they should not be sent back into the British justice system.

However Mr Justice Edwards disagreed and directed the surrender of both men.

He did however put a stay on the extradition orders pending any appeal.

On a previous occasion counsel for Craig, Mr Conor Devally SC, had questioned whether the surrender was legal under the Irish constitution.

Mr Justice Edwards also said the issue of returning wanted criminals involved in British legal proceedings, should be referred to Ireland’s Supreme Court because ‘this issue is cropping up again and again’.

Jim Oldcorn, a former detective inspector in CID, worked on the original investigation and said killers like Craig should die behind bars.

The 71-year-old, from Great Harwood, said: “For a man who was capable of such wicked violence, life should mean life.

“Mr Kirby was a perfectly innocent young man. Nobody ever deserves to be murdered.

“His poor mother must be turning in her grave at recent events.”