1,000 criminals at large after breaching parole

Nearly 1,000 criminals, including murderers, rapist and paedophiles, are on the run after disappearing while released on licence.

The 954 offenders include 19 murderers, 15 rapists, five paedophiles and 51 people convicted of GBH.

Some are still free 25 years after they should have gone back to jail.

Nineteen criminals who were freed in 1984 but later breached the terms of their release have still not been taken back into custody, Ministry of Justice figures show.

The government, the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) and the Met Police all refused to explain how the fugitives could have escaped justice for a quarter of a century.

Some 140 burglars, 98 fraudsters and 182 drug offenders are also still at large. Acpo has told all police forces to urgently arrest sexual and violent offenders.

‘Labour’s reckless early release scheme and lax approach to probation is putting the public at greater risk’, said shadow justice secretary Dominic Grieve.

Many of the missing criminals posed a ‘real threat’ and police must make ‘chasing warrants’ a priority, said Harry Fletcher of probation officers’ union Napo. Last month, it emerged Dano Sonnex, who has jailed for the murderers of two French students in south-east London, should have been in jail at the time of the killings.

The Ministry of Justice insisted the public were not a ‘higher risk’.

“The recall system works well. Of those recalled between 1999 and June 2008, just 0.7 percent of offenders have not been apprehended,’ said justice secretary Jack Straw

Source: Metro, 7 July 2009