Séamus McElwaine judge describing him as a "dangerous killer" and recommending he spend at least 30 years in prison. On 25 September 1983, McElwaine was involved in the Maze Prison escape, the largest break-out of prisoners in Europe since World War II and in British prison history. 38 republican prisoners, armed with 6 handguns, hijacked a prison meals lorry and smashed their way out of the Maze prison. After the escape he joined an IRA Active Service Unit operating in the area of the border between Counties Monaghan and Fermanagh. The unit targeted police and military patrols with gun and bomb attacks,
Massacre in the Mokotów prison steep roof of the building. From there, they descended onto the wall surrounding the prison, where civilians came to their aid, carrying ladders. In this way, from 200 to 300 prisoners managed to escape and get to the area occupied by the insurgents. The Germans did not try to stop them, because they wrongly hoped that the prisoners would run away through the main gate. The fate of detained Polish guards is unknown. Some witnesses testified that the guards were not murdered together with the prisoners and that many of them survived the war. Other witnesses, however, provided the opposite