Mathieu Marchisio, accomplice in Quebec helicopter jail break, pleads guilty

Mathieu StevenMarchisio,who helped two inmates escape from a Quebec jail by helicopter in 2013, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The 23-year-old pleaded guilty to several charges including hijacking a helicopter, kidnapping a pilot, possession of a firearm and breaching a prison.

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The 15-year sentence had been agreed uponby the Crown and the defence.

"It's a sentence that says something," said Crown prosecutor Steve Baribeau.

"In these kinds of cases, we've seen the kind of impact it can have. There was another escape at Orsainville. We need the courts to be uncompromising."

The Hollywood-style jailbreak took place at the Saint-Jrme detention centre in March 2013.

Marchisio and another manhijacked a helicopter and forced its pilot to fly to the jail, located about 50 kilometres northwest of Montreal.

Inmates Benjamin Hudon-Barbeau and Danny Provenal climbed up a rope into the waiting chopper.

Following a brief manhunt and a gunfight, they were nabbed by police and returned to custody.

The other accused in the case Hudon-Barbeau, Danny Provenaland the other alleged accomplices, Billy Beaudoin, Vincent Barbeau andSamuel Barbeau are scheduled to stand trial in January 2016.

In June 2014, threeother inmates escaped the Orsainville detention centre outside Quebec City in a similar fashion. They were eventually arrested at a condominium in Old Montreal.

A provincial inquiry in the wake of the second helicopter jailbreak highlighted a system-wide lack of preparation to prevent these types of escapes.

The report saidQuebec's correctional system should have been better equipped and prepared after the March 2013 helicopter escape to deal with a similar situation.

Correctional officials underestimated the likelihood of a repeatattempt to escape by helicopter, the report said.