LONDON — A murderer’s plot to escape from a British jail using a helicopter and secret codes hidden in Sudoku puzzles has been foiled.
Brian Lawrence schemed to bring a helicopter into the grounds of a prison on the Isle of Wight, communicating with accomplices using lemon juice as invisible ink and encrypted instructions.
The 67-year-old retired teacher is serving a life term for killing a man and hiring a hitman to kill two others in 2003.
The Ministry of Justice said Friday prison guards became suspicious when they spotted the words “more heat, less light” in a Lawrence letter, then found the invisible messages by heating the paper.
The ministry declined to say when the plot was foiled, but Lawrence has been transferred to another prison.