Man who fled from Shelton Abbey prison while in custody over Louth robbery is jailed again
The Wicklow PeopleA man who absconded from Shelton Abbey prison before fleeing to mainland Europe has been handed a further three-month prison sentence.
Sorin Ragalie (38), of Collinswood, Dublin 9, appeared before Arklow District Court for sentencing after pleading guilty to one count of escaping from lawful custody.
The accused was serving a sentence at Shelton Abbey open prison before absconding to his home country of Romania in 2020.
Earlier that year, at Dundalk Circuit Court, he received a four-year sentence for his role in two supermarket thefts in Co Louth, involving goods valued at just over €1,500.
During sentencing, Judge James McCourt noted the repeated nature of Mr Ragalie’s offending. Gardaí believed he had entered Ireland in 2019 and had multiple previous convictions in Wales, England and Romania.
The former fisherman was previously described as “very capable of being a productive member of society”, with Mr Ragalie also having worked as a labourer.
Garda Peter McGinley, attached to Arklow Garda Station, testified back in April 2026 that he and Sergeant Alan Murphy collected the defendant at Terminal 1, Dublin Airport.
Mr Ragalie claimed during interview: “While in prison they all tried to hit me,” adding: “They all said ‘f*** you, you Romanian’.
Since his arrest, the defendant has been serving the remainder of his sentence in Mountjoy Prison. He was described during previous proceedings as a “model prisoner, who worked in the kitchen”.
The matter was adjourned on three occasions as governors’ reports from his original periods in custody at the Midlands Prison and Shelton Abbey prison were sought. On Wednesday, July 15, the court heard that the reports had still not been produced.
However, the Governor of Mountjoy Prison had provided a brief report on the defendant’s current period in custody.
It was noted that Mr Ragalie has received no visitors since entering the prison. Sergeant Mick Dee said the defendant had not come to the attention of the police in his home country since fleeing the jurisdiction.
Defence counsel Sorcha Ní Neill Fulham handed a judgment from the Court of Appeal into the court, which sets out the sentencing guidelines for absconding cases.
The judgment concerned prisoner Frederick Lee, who absconded from Shelton Abbey prison before travelling to the United Kingdom.
Before his escape, Mr Lee was nearing the end of a life sentence for murder after he killed someone during the course of a burglary. The sentence was handed down in Leeds Crown Court in 1994, before he was returned to Ireland in 1998 to begin the sentence.
The Court of Appeal later reduced his sentence, finding that escape cases should be assessed on their own individual facts, taking into account the offender’s personal circumstances and the nature of the escape.
She argued that her client receiving no visits was “indicative of the difficulties faced here in Irish prisons by foreign nationals, particularly those with no support and language barriers”.
Judge Andy Gubbins sentenced the defendant to three months imprisonment, to run consecutively after his Dundalk sentence expires.