Irishman who murdered landlord in Barcelona arrested after prison escape

A convicted Irish killer on the run after a daring Barcelona prison escape has been arrested as he tried to leave Spain.

William Morrow Anderson vanished on July 21st after fleeing a car at a red traffic light in the Catalan capital during a supervised ‘scheduled outing’ with a social worker.

A manhunt was launched for the 54-year-old, serving a jail sentence of just over 10 years for murdering his landlord and dumping his mutilated body in a waste container near his rented home.

The arrest took place on Thursday afternoon at a railway station in the Costa Brava town of Portbou near France where the fugitive was waiting for a train to cross the border.

Last night the Irishman was behind bars again at Puig de les Basses Prison in the nearby city of Figueres.

Spanish police released footage of their armed officers escorting Morrow Anderson, who was wearing shorts and a T-shirt, to a waiting patrol car in handcuffs.

Three officers led him across the railway tracks to the vehicle where another uniformed cop was waiting.

On the run

It was not immediately clear this morning where he had been staying during his nine days on the run.

A National Police spokesman said overnight, referencing the province of Girona which Portbou is part of: “Officers have arrested a fugitive in Girona convicted of a murder committed in Barcelona in 2022.

“The fugitive was held at Portbou train station where he was trying to leave the country.”

🚩Agentes de @policia han detenido en #Girona a un fugitivo condenado por un asesinato cometido en 2022 en #Barcelona

El prófugo ha sido arrestado cuando se encontraba en la estación de tren de #Portbou y pretendía abandonar el país#SomosTuPolicía pic.twitter.com/Osh4ck0ubO

— Policía Nacional (@policia) July 31, 2026

Despite being sentenced just over a year ago, the on-the-run Irishman was allowed out of Quatre Camins Prison in the province of Barcelona earlier this month on a first outing into the Catalan capital.

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 running away from the vehicle in an emblematic avenue in Barcelona called Calle de la Marina.

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.

Dismembered body parts

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

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 meteres 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.”

Plea bargain deal

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 was not due to be released until October 2033, but will now have to appear before a judge on a charge of escaping prison and is expected to be sentenced to a couple more years behind bars.

He will also have to forego any programmed outings for an extended period of time.