Cheeky Facebook fugitive makes friends with the law

Police in the UK have caught up with an escaped prisoner who had been updating his Facebook page with photos and tales of life on the run for tens of thousands of bemused fans.

Craig "Lazie" Lynch escaped from a minimum security prison near Woodbridge in Suffolk on September 23 2009, and while he was a routine inmate on a routine charge when he decided to jump the fence, he could not have expected that he would become a minor celebrity in Britain within a few of months.

It was Lynch's decision to continue updating his Facebook page that led to his fifteen minutes of fame, and the very thing that brought it to a crashing end. But in the months between his escape and eventual recapture, the fugitive managed to attract thousands of followers in Britain and across the world as his bravado grew in equal measure.

In between musing on his New Years Eve dilemmas — obviously a tough one if you're a wanted man — and sending many thank you messages to supporters on his fan page, he also found the time to taunt the police by posting a number of photos of himself posing in unknown locations.

CNET News revealed that police enlisted the help of Facebook to track Lynch down, but Scotland Yard would not confirm whether or not they had been able to locate him as a direct result of his Facebook use.

According to Associated Press, media attention and public interest in the story has now generated a minor marketing campaign around Lynch, with a line of t-shirts and even a tribute song in the works.