1,500 criminals – including sex fiends, gangsters and arms smugglers – who should be in prison have VANISHED
SEX attackers, drug dealers and thugs are among nearly 1,500 fugitive cons who have disappeared, a Sunday People investigation has found.
Justice chiefs were last night facing urgent questions after we uncovered the horrifying figure, which has been branded “a national scandal” by crime campaigners.
The dangerous offenders are at large in Britain, despite being recalled to prison.
Shockingly, more than 700 have dropped off the radar for longer than years.
All should have been returned to prison after committing fresh crimes or breaking the rules of their early release.
But they have evaded police and are walking the streets.
Our investigation comes after probation chiefs were blasted for failing to recall serial rapist Joseph Mccann before he attacked a string of victims aged between 11 and 71.
A review published by the Ministry of Justice found nine occasions where Mccann, 35, could have been jailed for breaking his licence conditions.
But bungles left the beast free to carry out eight rapes on women and children during a two-week reign of terror in April and May last year.
Mccann’s first victim was a woman of 21, who he abducted in Watford, Herts, and raped in her own bed.
In his second attack, in Lancashire, he tied up a mum in her own home before abusing her two young children. A woman of 71 was also among his 11 victims.
Before his rampage, it emerged that Mccann had been mistakenly let out of prison halfway through a three-year sentence for burglary and theft.
Justice did not catch up with him until December, when he received 33 life sentences and was ordered to serve a minimum of 30 years in jail.
David Spencer, of the Centre for Crime Prevention, said yesterday: “For the MOJ to admit to losing more than 1,000 serious offenders into communities should be a national scandal. “The MOJ speaks of taking tough action but the fact that more than 700 of these criminals have been loose for more than five years tells a very different story. It is time their actions matched their words and serious time and resources were invested into rounding up these lags and putting them back behind bars where they belong.
“A review of bail and release on licence is also long overdue to ensure the system is no longer able to leave dangerous criminals free to roam the streets before they have served their full sentence or even appeared before a court.”
Figures obtained under Freedom of Information laws show some 1,445 freed prisoners have been missing for more than a year after being recalled to prison – and 722 have been “lost” for more than five years.
Some were recalled after being charged with another offence on their release, but have since jumped bail.
Others faced a recall to prison because they broke rules that had been imposed on their release from prison by the Probation Service.
Of the 1,445 fugitives, 171 were convicted of burglary, 302 for drugs offences and 115 for robbery.
Another 58 were released after serving sentences for sexual offences and 208 had been jailed for assaults.
Dame Vera Baird QC, Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales, said: “The crucial thing for me is that, where appropriate, the victims of these offenders are kept informed. Victims