AN ESCAPED convict and prison warder — alias Nigel Westwood and Ann Elliott, a web developer and housewife from Tavistock — were successful in reaching the most northerly point in the UK as part of the recent Dartmoor Jailbreak.

The two 'escapees', with the team name NACCered, were raising money for Vranch House School for children with cerebral palsy and the National Association for Colitis and Crohn's Disease.

Nigel said that £1,700 had so far been pledged for the charities, but cheques were still coming in.

They set off on the first leg on April 20, appropriately dressed, in a stretch limousine which took them to Plymouth station. Participants are not allowed to pay for travel themselves, and a restaurant outside Reading had paid for their return rail tickets to Aberdeen — but Nigel said the line was down between Newcastle and Edinburgh.

After completing that part of the journey by coach, they were given free single rooms by a hotel for the night before continuing to Aberdeen by train.

'We were flown from the airport to Scatsa in the middle of the Shetlands and were hoping to get up to Muckle Flugga by helicopter. But it couldn't fly that day, so we decided to get as far as we could on foot,' Nigel said.

They managed 50 miles by hitching and ferries, and succeeded in reaching Holme of Skaw — the most northerly house in the UK — but unfortunately the occupants were out, Nigel said.

They found a lift across to Saxa Vord, from where they could see Muckle Flugga, and by walking and hitching lifts went back down to the most northerly brewery, Valhalla Brewery — where they 'had a beer or two'.

After hitching back to Brae they were put up for the night, and spent most of the following day in the Maritime Operations Office at the airport waiting to find out if the helicopter was able to fly. This was finally agreed and they reached Muckle Flugga off the north coast of Shetland by 4pm on Tuesday, April 23 — well-ahead of the final allowed time of 10.30am on Wednesday.

'We were very well known in Scotland,' said Nigel, who said the reaction had been 'all very good' — apart from one place where a man said he had done an escape 'for real'!

The escapees were even interviewed on Radio Scotland. In all they completed around 1,890 miles.

Further details of Dartmoor Jailbreak results are available at http://www.dartmoorescape.co.uk">www.dartmoorescape.co.uk 01822 610260.