Irish killer who dismembered landlord escapes prison in Barcelona

An Irishman who admitted last year to killing his landlord and dumping his mutilated body in a waste container in Barcelona has reportedly escaped from prison.

William Morrow Anderson was serving a jail sentence of just over ten years for homicide and desecrating his victim’s body.

A manhunt was said to be underway for the 54-year-old after he vanished during a supervised “scheduled outing” with a social worker in the Catalan capital.

Local press are reporting he had been enjoying a stroll and a coffee in the trendy Born area of Barcelona with his therapist and also his partner as part of a reintegration programme and fled a car they then got into when it stopped at a red traffic light.

He was last seen on Tuesday in an emblematic avenue in Barcelona called Calle de la Marina, according to news website El Caso.

Prison authorities in Catalonia could not be reached this afternoon and the regional Mossos d’Esquadra police, who are reportedly leading the hunt for the Irishman, said it was not something they would be commenting on.

William Morrow Anderson was arrested after the macabre body parts find in Barcelona in December 2022 and accused of the German victim’s homicide.

He admitted his crime on day one of a trial in the Catalan capital on May 19 last year.

Public prosecutors had demanded a 12-year prison sentence for the Irishman.

He ended up being caged for 10 years after pleading guilty to a charge of homicide and another three months for desecrating his victim’s body.

A mental disorder he is said to be suffering was taken into account as a mitigating circumstance.

Prosecutors had accused the self-confessed killer of fatally attacking his German victim Alireza Rahideh two days after he had sub-let him a room in a seventh-floor flat in a central Barcelona street called calle Casanova.

They alleged he had subsequently cut up his body and spent the next few days leaving his dismembered body parts around the city.

A scrap dealer searching through street rubbish containers alerted the authorities after opening up a black suitcase with a strong smell coming from it yards from the apartment and discovering the victim’s torso.

Rahideh’s tenant was arrested after the dead man was identified through DNA tests along with a Ukrainian national who was subsequently released on bail and never charged.

CCTV footage obtained from a nearby garage and a bank across the street were said at the time to have played a vital role in the arrest of the Irishman.

Police revealed at the time the rubbish container where the torso was found was just 15 METRES from the apartment block where the killing occurred.

Spanish press accused the killer in the immediate aftermath of the crime of committing a “huge blunder” by dumping the victim’s body parts so close to the scene of the crime.

The scrap dealer, named only as Chiprian, told local media after making the gruesome discovery: “My work involves going through the rubbish and when I saw the black case I thought I had found something good.

“When I opened it up to see what was inside I was hit by a terrible smell which at first I thought was rotting meat a bar had thrown out or remains of food.

“It was only when I pushed the zip back a bit further I saw it was a body without the hands, feet or head.

“I informed a kiosk owner I know who was in the area and told him to look inside as well and he thought at first it was a mannequin.”

The regional Mossos d’Esquadra police in Barcelona said in a statement confirming the two arrests before the men went to court and it emerged the Irish national was the only one of the two suspects remanded in custody: “Mossos officers from Barcelona’s Criminal

Investigation Division have arrested two men aged 31 and 51 in relation to the discovery of some human remains inside a rubbish container on November 29 on the corners of Casanova Street and Rome Avenue.

“As part of the investigation a home in the city of Barcelona was located where possible evidence linking it to a violent death was found.

“The two detainees have been handed over to a judge for further questioning.”

The killer claimed after his arrest he got into a fight with his victim and didn’t intend to end his life when he hit him although further details did not emerge at his trial because of his plea bargain deal.

The Catalan High Court of Justice said before the start of the murder trial at Barcelona’s Audiencia Provincial court: “A person accused of a crime of homicide will be tried from today.

“The crime he has been charged with occurred in 2022.

“According to public prosecutors the accused man rented a room from the victim and attacked him violently and killed him.

“Some days later, with the intention of erasing the clues of his crime and covering up what he had done, he dismembered his victim and dumped his body parts, disposing of them in a rubbish container where they were found by a person looking inside.

“Public prosecutors are seeking a 12-year prison sentence for the suspect.”

The Irishman said to be on the run was an inmate at Quatre Camins Prison in the province of Barcelona.

Although he is not due to be released until October 2033, he is already said to have been enjoying temporary prison outings.