Post office body crook walks free one week after being sentenced

Man who dragged lifeless uncle to collect pension is out of jail

- MICHAEL O'TOOLE

THIS is the moment a man who dragged his "lifeless" uncle to a post office to take his pension walked free from prison - a week after the court handed down a two-year sentence.

Irish Mirror photos show criminal Declan Haughney, 41, leaving the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise, Co Laois, yesterday morning.

The Carlow man spent his first moments of freedom in more than 18 months smoking a cigarette outside the prison's visitor centre when he walked out at around 10.40am.

But Haughney then retreated back inside when he noticed media waiting outside the prison.

He emerged an hour later and was promptly driven away by a woman in a maroon Renault car.

Neither Haughney nor the woman responded to questions from the Irish Mirror and she rolled up her car window when we tried to talk to them.

Haughney, who has 55 previous convictions, was released because of time already served - and the fact he is entitled to 25% remission on his sentence like all other inmates.

Looking fit and wearing a dark blue shirt, it is expected he will return to his native Carlow, where he and pal Gareth Coakley made headlines around the world in January last year.