Escaped Convict is Using Facebook

Craig Lynch, a 28 year old Briton with a seven year sentence for burglary, not only managed to escape from his Suffolk prison more than three months ago, but he continues to evade police despite posting daily status updates and photos on Facebook. Most of Lynch’s more than 9,600 Facebook “fans” must be scratching their heads, wondering why British police have been unable to catch the escaped felon, even as he taunts and teases authorities on the world’s most popular social networking site. Characteristic of Lynch’s brazen manner, the escapee recently posted a photo of him with an extended middle finger and a status update in which he noted that English police “couldn’t catch themselves a cold.” Lynch also uses Facebook to discuss his favourite meals while on the run, to ask the social networking site’s users to create fan t-shirts for him and—rather ironically—convince British authorities to hand down hefty prison sentences to anyone convicted of cruelty to animals.

Most of Lynch’s Facebook fans are based in the United Kingdom, but his newsfeed is also followed by hundreds of people in the United States, Norway and Canada. For his part, Lynch lists his current location on his Facebook page as being Wembley, London. Most recently, the escaped convict told his Facebook fans that he was still in the process of deciding where to celebrate New Year’s Eve.

Many of Lynch’s Facebook “fans” aren’t really that thrilled with the escaped convict at all, and they express their disapproval by posting disparaging comments on the 28 year old man’s page. This led Lynch to recently argue that he is “here, there and everywhere, but not out to harm the world.”

What appears to be the biggest mystery to most Facebook users is why police have not been able to trace Lynch’s location by simply tracking his IP address. This past Saturday, for example, Lynch posted two dozen status updates during the day, and often at just 15 minute intervals. According to reports, Facebook is cooperating with authorities in the UK on this file.