A FORMER detective has said it would be an insult to the memory of an East Lancashire man if his killer was allowed to remain abroad.

It comes after convicted murderer Anthony Craig, who beat his victim to death with a stone in one of the area’s most notorious murders, vowed he would continue to fight extradition from Ireland back to the UK after escaping from his life sentence.

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Jim Oldcorn, who was a detective sergeant in the original investigation into the death of John Kirby in Blackburn’s Corporation Park in 1973, said the 32-year-old’s mother would be ‘turning in her grave’ if she knew how Craig was trying to evade justice.

But speaking exclusively to the Lancashire Telegraph, Craig, who is now living with his wife and stepson in a town just outside of Dublin, said he believed he was rehabilitated and deserved to live out the rest of his life as a free man.

Mr Oldcorn, who later worked for Pendle Council, said: “Killers should know that when they leave the dock they will never be freed. I would go further and advocate the death penalty for all vile murderers.

“Allowing Craig to stay in Ireland would be an insult to Mr Kirby’s memory.

“The sentence that was passed was given by a British court and I think it would be wrong if the final decision was not taken by a court here.”

Craig, from Blackburn, has appealed to the highest Irish court to stop him being sent back to Britain to serve the remainder of his life sentence for killing accountant Mr Kirby, who was gay.

A judge ordered that he should go back to the UK, but the 67-year-old said he will do all he can to stave off the extradition.

He said he felt he had served his time and that being made to go back to jail would be like he was being ‘thrown to the wolves’.

Craig said: “I understand that people think I should die in prison.

“But I have already been in prison for almost 30 years and they would give me a really hard time.

“If I have to return to jail, they would throw me to the wolves.”

Craig has been on the run in Ireland since he walked out of HMP Sudbury, which is an open prison, in Derbyshire in 2002.

He had been convicted in 1973 for killing 32-year-old Mr Kirby, who lived in Whalley Road, Samlesbury, by hitting him over the head with a brick in the park, which was a popular meeting place for members of the gay community, and sentenced to life behind bars.

But Craig said he planned to be moved to the open prison where he would be able to make his escape.

He said: “I had to admit my crime to get to this prison. If I had kept saying I was innocent, they would not have let me go to an open prison.

“I thought I was going to finish off there, but a senior officer told me I would be doing three or four years there and then they would find me another prison.

“After all those years, I thought ‘Oh God’. I was depressed and that is why I did the runner.

“I went through hell in prison and that is what is going to happen again if they send me back.”

Craig described how he spent several days hiding out in woodland, before he travelled to Dublin, where he went from job to job, often living on the streets.

He said: “Sudbury is in the middle of nowhere and I was in the countryside for three or four days.

“I didn’t go straight to Ireland. I stayed in England for a while and I got a bit of a job on a farm. A guy asked me to clean a shed out and he paid me for it.

“Then I went to Ireland and that is where I eventually met my partner.”

Craig said when he first got to Ireland, he was sleeping rough and had about £80 on him.

He added: “That did not last long. I bought a harmonica and I was busking on the streets.

“I was starving because I had been used to three meals a day and a nice warm bed in prison.

“I did not have a thing, but I still did not get into trouble. “ Craig earned around €30 a day playing the harmonica and also travelled around the country working on farms until he met his partner. They lived together in a house in Strathcoole, near Dublin, and Craig managed to keep from the attention of the authorities until the property was burgled and he called police for help.

He said when officers asked for his date of birth they realised he was on an Interpol wanted list and he was arrested.

Craig said: “I was taken to the High Court in Dublin and remanded in custody for one week.

“I appealed for bail and the judge said yes because I had been living openly and I had not been hiding or anything like that.

“I was just living a normal life. I have proven to the judge that I am a law-abiding citizen because I have honoured all my bail conditions.”

Craig is due to appear before the Supreme Court in the coming months for a last-ditch attempt to keep his freedom.

Irish police know where Craig is and he is on bail, meaning he has to check in at his local Garda station several times a week.

However, no action can be taken to bring him back to the UK while the extradition appeal is ongoing.

The defendant said he was now hoping to appeal his conviction as well. He said he was not alone on the night of Mr Kirby’s murder and another man killed him.

He said: “Hopefully, it will be taken back to the Court of Appeal.

“I do not want compensation. I do not want the money, it is just about the truth.

“I have never told anybody, but I have brought it all out in the open now.”

Mr Kirby was found in a pool of blood by a dog walker near Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School on November 4.

During his trial, unemployed labourer Craig said he pretended he was homosexual so he could rob him in the park.

Once there, Craig hit Mr Kirby twice with a brick and stole 2p. Realising that his victim may not be dead, Craig returned and struck him again on the back of the head.

Craig, who had initially pleaded not guilty, admitted he had lied under oath.

In 1995, Craig went on the run for a month after absconding from HMP Haverigg, Cumbria.

Mr Oldcorn, a married father-of-two, who lives in Great Harwood, said he was appalled to hear Craig was still fighting extradition.

He said: “Tony Craig absconded from his life sentence and has spent the past 12 years leading a comfortable life in the Republic of Ireland, unbelievably getting married in the process.

“You cannot simply have people absconding from prison otherwise we would end up with total anarchy.

“I was involved in that investigation and had the unenviable task of informing the late mother of the victim of the ferocious and brutal manner with which her only son had met his death.

“This poor lady must be turning in her grave at recent events.”