Calgary

Former prison worker charged with aiding inmate's escape from Bowden Institution

An ex-employee of the Bowden Institution in southern Alberta has been charged with helping the escape of a man serving a 10-year sentence.

Employee developed 'inappropriate financial relationship' with prisoner, police say

Police have charged a Red Deer County, Alta., man with allegedly assisting a prisoner's escape from the Bowden Institution back in 2015 while the man was an employee at the prison. (Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press)

A man has been charged in connection to a prison break from the Bowden Institution in southern Alberta in 2015 while he was an employee there.

Innisfail RCMP say Sylvain Martin escaped from the minimum security annex at the Bowden Institution, about 110 kilometres north of Calgary, on April 16, 2015. He was arrested later that year on a Canada-wide warrant in Quebec and returned to the custody of Corrections Canada.

In a release, police say their 19-month-long investigation into Martin's escape revealed that a Bowden Institution employee "developed an inappropriate financial relationship" with Martin while the man was incarcerated there.

Sylvain Martin, pictured here, escaped from the Bowden Institution in southern Alberta in 2015. He was arrested in Quebec on a Canada-wide warrant later that year. (RCMP)

Martin was serving a 10-year sentence for fraud, obstruction of police, forgery and other offences at the time of his escape.

Peter Edgar, 61 of Red Deer County, is charged with two counts of permitting or assisting escape. He is scheduled to appear in a Red Deer court on Oct. 25.

Edgar is no longer employed by Corrections Canada.