Convicted murderer Lerone Boye arrested three months after fleeing mental health unit

Lerone Boye. Photograph: Metropolitan Police

A convicted murderer who escaped from a Hackney mental health unit in October last year has been arrested by police in Essex.

Lerone Boye was on the run for three months after absconding from the John Howard Centre in Kenworthy Road, Homerton.

Police had offered a £15,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.

The Metropolitan Police said today that Boye was arrested as part of a planned operation shortly before 4pm yesterday at a house in Elderberry Close, Chigwell.

He has been taken to a north London police station, where he remains in custody.

He was sentenced in December 2012 to 28 years in prison for the murder of 17-year-old Kelvin Chibueze in Ilford in 2011.

John Howard Centre staff member Dean Ablakwa, 29, from north London, is due to appear at Snaresbrook Crown Court for a plea and case management hearing tomorrow.

He is accused of helping Boye to escape and has not yet entered a plea.