Scandal of 39 on run from soft- touch jail
KILLERS, drug dealers, thieves and fraudsters are among 39 prisoners at large after fleeing from one of Britain’s most notorious soft- touch jails.
Some have been on the run from Ford Open Prison in West Sussex for more than 10 years.
Among them is violent killer Robert Donovan, 57, whose disappearance emerged only last year, four years after he had walked out of the jail in Arundel.
He was sentenced to life in 1974 for stabbing a theatre manager to death when he was just 17.
Murderer Derek Passmore, 50, who beat to death a disabled man in 1996, is still at large after he failed to return to the 500- inmate jail from day release in June 2013.
Fraudster Tom Zolynski, 39, stole £ 10,000 from a pensioner for whom he was supposed to be caring. He was jailed for two years in 2010 but fled the prison later that year.
Goran Durdevic, 38, was jailed for 15 months in 2005 for stealing a man’s credit card at a cash machine. He walked out of the jail in February 2006.
Victor Lloyd Mcfarlane, 45, was serving a sentence for supplying drugs when he went missing 11 years ago.
Also among those still at large is Oluwasegun Adekule, who was jailed in 2007 for his role in a gang of fraudsters who stole £ 2.4million from clients of Halifax, HSBC and Barclays, including trying to defraud TV journalist Rageh Omar.
Richard John Agar was convicted of unlawfully importing or exporting drugs in 2007 and failed to return from temporary release in 2009, aged 45. Another dealer, John UmegoCastano, was serving 13 years for supplying Class A drugs when he went on the run in 2009.
Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has sought to cut the number of escapes by barring inmates with a history of absconding from being sent to open prisons.
But last week High Court judges ruled the policy was unlawful.
Ford was last year revealed to have the worst record for any jail for inmates vanishing, with a total of 89 prisoners going on the run, though many have been re captured.
Glyn Travis, of the Prison Officers’ Association, said: “There is constant overcrowding and inappropriate prisoners are being sent to open prison when they obviously pose a serious risk to the public.”