Outrage as another convict goes on the run (From Gazette Series)

Outrage as another convict goes on the run

8:20am Thursday 14th June 2007 in

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ANOTHER convict was on the run from Leyhill Prison this week after giving pursuers the slip in a dramatic cross-country chase.

Prolific offender Wayne Johansen, 29, absconded from the controversial open prison last Friday despite being challenged by a Prison Service dog handler in the prison grounds.

He made off through woodland and was spotted by an off duty female prison officer who saw him entering the grounds of Tortworth Primary School.

"This occurred well into the evening and thankfully the school was closed," said Sgt Craig Ogbourne of Thornbury police.

"The prison officer did what she could to detain him but he got away and was believed to be heading towards the M5 motorway."

There were no further sightings of the fugitive, despite a search by prison staff and police units including the force helicopter, which hovered over the area for almost 30 minutes.

"We were inundated with calls from members of the public curious to know what was going on around Leyhill," said Sgt Ogbourne.

Johansen, from the Dorset area, was serving a 30-month sentence for burglary imposed at Bournemouth Crown Court in January this year.

Northavon MP Steve Webb said the latest abscond reinforced his concern that Leyhill was being used as overflow accommodation during the prison overcrowding crisis and that inmates were being sent there without proper risk assessment.

"If this man was only jailed in January it raises the question of why he was at Leyhill," he said.

"The suspicion must be that it is being filled up with the kind of offenders it was never meant to hold. It is supposed to be for lifers and long term offenders approaching the end of their sentences.

"Prisoners are being sent there because there's nowhere else for them. When it is getting the wrong type of inmate it makes it very hard for Leyhill to do its job of rehabilitating long term prisoners and preparing them to rejoin society."

A Prison Service spokesman said open prisons were being "maximised" but all prisoners at Leyhill were rigorously risk assessed and categorised as being of low risk to the public.

"Public protection is paramount and prisoners are returned to closed conditions if our risk assessments indicate likely non-compliance," he said.

"The nature of open prisons means that we can never guarantee that prisoners will not abscond, but the number of those who do, in relation to the prison population, is now at its lowest level for 10 years.

"All absconds are immediately reported to the police. Absconders can be criminally charged and a number of prisoners have received additional custodial sentences.

"Over three quarters of those prisoners who have absconded have been re-arrested and returned to custody."

Johansen is described as white, 5ft 7ins tall, of medium build, clean shaven with blue eyes and a scar on the left side of his face.

He is considered not to pose a danger but police advise the public not to approach him but to call 999.

Johansen's flight brings the number of abscondees from the prison so far this year to 26, of whom 12 are still at large.

Last year 32 inmates walked out of the jail compared with 89 in 2005 and 116 in 2004.

FOOTNOTE: Police were called back to Leyhill in the early hours of Monday when a 21-year-old man was detained after ENTERING the prison.

"He had been with friends at nearby Tortworth Court Hotel and was hopelessly lost," said Sgt Ogbourne. "Officers spoke to him but no action was taken and he was reunited with his comrades."